07-10-2008
In Switzerland, gas or "petrol" is roughly $7.15 per gallon, and diesel is approaching $9.00 per gallon. So why isn't this country in a total panic, facing a severe recession and partial social breakdown, such as what can happen with these prices in the U.S.?
By design, good fortune, or both, you do not have to own a car there. Even small villages are connected by a world-class train system. Where the train leaves off, such as in a high Alpine village, an intricately connected bus will often take you the rest of the way.
Yeah but, don't the trains run on oil? Not exactly. The Swiss train system is more than 95 percent electrified. About 58 percent of the electricity comes from hydropower, and 40 percent from five nuclear power plants the country operates.
A tiny percent derives from biomass, wind, and solar. In fact, on a recent trip to Switzerland, in the Zurich area, I was surprised not to see more solar photovoltaic (PV) installations on the roofs. I was told there were more PV modules installed in the south of the country near Italy, where it is a little sunnier.
Further, it is extremely easy to put your bike on the train in Switzerland (and I presume in Europe as a whole). So Switzerland has already done what the U.S. has to do to survive a severe energy crisis; electrified its transportation, built a world-class train system, used a high percentage of renewables to generate electricity, and made it incredibly easy to combine bicycling with train travel.