Preserving Natural Habitats for Future Generations
The issue
Planned wind parks and large-scale photovoltaic installations on hillsides and mountainsides are drastically disfiguring our landscape and destroying habitats.
Swiss landscapes are globally unique and represent the most valuable asset of our country. By covering our currently untouched hills and mountains with solar panels, we irreversibly destroy our heritage and identity. Wind turbines are true monsters, reaching heights of up to 200 meters, strategically placed in the most visible locations: exposed, elevated areas in the midst of nature. Yet, Switzerland is considered a country with low wind resources!
In addition, these developments require massive amounts of concrete (grey energy) and create monstrous new access roads, further defacing landscapes and natural habitats. Wind and solar parks in outdoor nature also have devastating impacts on wildlife: hundreds of thousands of birds and bats die annually due to the enormous rotor blades of wind turbines. Habitats are altered and severely impacted.
Given the climate and biodiversity crisis, intact natural habitats are far more crucial to us than the minimal additional electricity that could be generated on open spaces in pristine landscapes in Switzerland.
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Our project
Fondation Franz Weber and its subsidiary association Helvetia Nostra actively advocate for the preservation of untouched landscapes and intact mountain ridges, as well as the compliance with nature and landscape conservation regulations. Above all, we fight against new planned wind parks and mega-solar projects at the expense of pristine natural landscapes.
FFW firmly believes that solar installations in untouched mountain areas are the wrong approach. The untapped potential for sustainable solar power production—without defacing natural landscapes on already sealed surfaces such as roofs and facades—is higher at 67 TWh than Switzerland’s total electricity demand (2021: 58.1 TWh). At the same time, the potential for wind energy in wind-scarce Switzerland is relatively low at 29.5 TWh, especially considering how much nature and habitats would be destroyed in their construction.
Our goals
- Preserving intact Swiss natural landscapes
- Highlighting the potential of already sealed areas for solar power utilization
- Protecting the habitats of numerous animals and plants to preserve biodiversity
- Putting an end to the senseless deaths of countless, often protected bird species and bats
Facts and Figures
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