Switzerland Launches Greentech Initiative Supporting Sustainable Products and Services

Switzerland Launches Greentech Initiative Supporting Sustainable Products and
Services

NEW YORK, July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Switzerland Trade and Investment Promotion
USA (STIP) launched a new program on July 10 promoting green technologies from
Switzerland for the United States under the brand Swiss Greentech. The
initiative was announced at the "Green Tech in a Global Marketplace" seminar
in San Francisco organized by STIP and swissnex.

Federal Councilor Doris Leuthard, Vice President of the Swiss Confederation
and Head of Switzerland's Federal Department of Economic Affairs, who opened
the seminar, remarked that Switzerland wants to become stronger in the
promotion of green technologies in the US and worldwide.

Swiss Greentech Initiatives

Green technology in Switzerland has a long history supported by the country's
strong research institutes and technology companies. In 2008 the government
demonstrated its commitment by launching an action plan for renewable energy,
the objective of which is to increase its contribution to 24% of total
consumption by 2020, from 16.2% today. This year, the government launched
additional long-term policies and strategies concerning renewable energy
tapping solar, hydraulic, wind, and biomass resources.

According to Martin von Walterskirchen of STIP, there are 538 hydroelectric
power plants in Switzerland generating 57% of the country's domestic
electricity production, and 30 wind plants generating 14 gigawatt hours of
energy. Solar energy also generates about half a percent of the country's
total power production.

A recent study indicates that Swiss green technology has already created
61,000 full time jobs - almost 2% of total employment - and contributes 1.6%
to the Swiss GDP.

Solar Projects in Switzerland

Of the many greentech innovations originating in Switzerland, perhaps best
known is explorer Bertrand Piccard's Solar Impulse project aimed at an
around-the-world-flight powered by the sun starting in 2010. Through research
at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), complex
issues of flight using only renewable energy and without creating pollutants
will be solved.

Other notable ventures include the Solar Islands project at the Swiss Center
for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM), which calls for the creation of
land- or sea-based large circular solar panel islands that rotate to follow
the sun, creating electricity and hydrogen, and Louis Palmer's Solartaxi which
made an around-the-world tour in December 2008.

Cross Border Interest

Space Energy Group, a US-based company with plans to commercialize space-based
solar power (SBSP), recently opened its international headquarters in the
Swiss canton of Schaffhausen. The company plans to use proven concepts to
develop geosynchronous orbit satellites that will operate as space solar
energy collectors and transmitters.

www.locationswitzerland.com

SOURCE Switzerland Trade and Investment Promotion USA

Switzerland Trade and Investment Promotion: Martin von Walterskirchen
+312-915-4501