Adobe Photoshop

AIO lHE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2019 lHE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2019 N All As the Glaciers Melt, Switzerland Adjusts Glaciers in the Swiss By HENRY FOUNTAIN own making: Amid widespread public op Alps are retreating as GADMEN, SWITZERLAND - For hikers look position to nuclear power following the 2011 the earth warms. Tue ing for a daylong outing in central Switzer Fukushima accident in Japan, the Swiss land, the li'ift Glacier footbridge is a popu government has pledged to gradually warming has of late phase out thecountry's live reactors. Those led to an increase in lar destination. It's a short gondola ride from the village of Gadmen, followed by a reactors provide nearly all the restof Switz hydropower produc few miles' trek up a rocky path overlooking erland's power, and they are especially im tion. Eventua1ly the a granite gorge. portant in winter, when hydropower pro ice will retreat to an Those who successfully fight off a case of duction drops and energy demand in- extent that stream nerves - the slender cable-and-plank creases. flows will decline and bridge is more than 500 feet long and 300 The government's energy strategy calls power production will feet in the air - are rewarded with spectac for increases in wind, solar and geothermal power, which currently make up a small drop. However, the ular viewsofthe Trift Valley. But the glacier itself is hardly to be seen. Bec.ause of a share of electricity production. The Swiss va1leys le~ behind warming atmosphere, it has retreated rap are also counting on hydropower compa may be ideal sites to idly this century. nies to expand their output, even though collect and store water The Trift is a casualty of climate change, glacial meltwater will eventually decline. for hydropower. one of tens of thousands of glaciers around For Alpiq and other companies, the land the world that are shrinking as the earth left behind by retreating glaciers offers op warms bec.ause of greenhouse gas emis portunities. sions. But the Swisshave aplan tomake use When glaciers grow and advance, their ofthe valley the ice left behind - by adding abrasive power - the weight of massive to hydropower production, which itself is amounts of ice mixed with rock debris - threatened by glacial melting. carves valleys in the landscape. As glaciers Worldwide, shrinking glaciersare adding shrink, these valleys are exposed. Some of to rising sea levels and c.ausing floods, and them may be ideal sites to collect and store will eventually mean less water for people water for hydropower. and crops. But this great melting will also Swiss researchers have studied the coun have an effect on the generation of electrici try's glaciers and, using radar, the underly ty, as glaciers shrink to the point where ing bedrock, with an eye to loc.ating poten Photographs by meltwater flows start to decline. That will tial new reservoirs. "We're looking at what BENC.SOLOMON is going to be the future topography;' said for The New York Times strain energy supplies, since, worldwide, about 16 percent of power is generated by Robert Boes, an engineer and director of the flowing water. Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and The potential impact is far greater herein Glaciology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Switzerland, in the heart of the Alps, which Technology in Zurich. has more glaciers than any other Alpine Other criteria are evaluated as well, in country and where hydropower accounts cluding potential construction costs, how for nearly 60 percentofelectricity. (Bycom much energy could be generated and parison, the United States gets about 7 per whether the quantity of sediment- retreat cent of its power from water.) ing glaciers leavea Jot ofthat behind as well Rain and melting snow are often the main - would harm turbinesorcause other prob sources of water for hydropower, but in lems. Switzerland and many other countries the One suitable spotis at the Trift. Another is melting of glacier ice is an important con at the Oberaletsch, a smaller glacier near tributor. And those glaciers are now melting the Aletsch. fast. A quarter-century ago, the Oberaletsch In Switzerland, where the Alpsare warm had about half a cubic mile of ice. It lost Water oollects behind ing faster than the global average, most of about 7 percent ofthat by 2000, and by the the Gebidem dam, the country's 1,500 glaciers have retreated middle of this century the ice loss could be traveling 2,000 feet every year since 2001; many are expected 70 percent of the original volume. below to a generating to all but vanish by 2090. The melting was Although the Oberaletsch's leading edge, plant. As wanning especially bad in 2017, when 20 monitored or tongue, is still covered by up to 650 feet of continues, such plants ice, by the middle of the century the ice is Swiss glaciers lost about 3 percent of their will probably see a volume bec.ause of a dry winter and an ex expected to be gone and a long, thin lake tremely hot summer. Last year was bad as will appear in its place. That will collect decline in power pro well, according to Glacier Monitoring in meltwater from what remains ofthe glacier, duction. Researchers Switzerland, which tracks changes. as well as runoff from rain and melting have studied Swit:zer As wanning continues, plants like one in snow. land'5 glacier5, includ Bitsch, deep inside a mountain near the Engineers with Alpiq have proposed ing Obera1etsch, far Rhone River, will mostlikely see adeclinein building a new generating plantat the exist left, for potentia1 new ing Gebidem dam reservoir and tUIUleling power production this century. reservoirs. lce melt at At the Bitsch plant, electricity is up to a spot under the Oberaletsch where Oberaletsch by the produced by generators attached to three the lake will form. Everything,including the turbines that are spun by water from a res plant, would be inside the mountain to re middle of this century ervoir 2,000 feet higher up the mountain. duce the visual and environmental impact. is expected to fonn a The reservoir, behind the 50-year-old Gebi Mr. Widmer said that the company was in thin lake. dem arch dam, is fed by the Aletsch Glacier, discussions with government agencies the longest in Europe. about the project. But the Aletsch, 14 miles long and up to Water from the Oberaletsch would gener 3,000 feet thick, is shrinking year by year. It ate electricity at the new plant and then could lose 90 percent ofits ice by2100. flowto the existing plant at Bitsch and make "When we designed the first power more electricity there. Vanishing Glaciers plants in Switzerland in the middle of the At the Trift, the ice that once filled much This is the second of last century, we didn't talk about climate of the valley is already gone, replaced by a three artic!es about the change," said Florian Widmer, an executive natural lake. Another hydropower com effects of climate change with Alpiq, a Swiss power company that is pany has plans to make it even !arger. on mountaing!aciers. the largest shareholder in the Bitsch plant. "We saw 10 years ago that it was a lake," Now, he said, companies like his must plan said Daniel Fischlin, chief executive of the for a future of little or no glacial meltwater. company, Kraftwerke Oberhasli, or KWO. For now, accelerated melting in many "That started the idea - there's a really narrow place, and there you can build a I' glaciated regions, including the Alps, is in GtRMANY ( creasing stream flows and filling reservoirs dam." faster, leading to greater electricity genera The dam would be built in the narrow F. RANCE • Lake .. tion. In Switzerland, for example, a recent gorge at the outlet of the lake, and would be " study showed that loss of glacial mass be higher than the existing footbridge. As with cause ofthe warming climate has increased the Oberaletsch project, the water would hydropower production by 3 percent to 4 travel by tunnel to a new generating plant percent since 1980. farther down the mountain. "Today, we benefit from glacial melting;' The reservoir and plant would serve as Mr. Widmer said. backup power, in effect, for periods when But eventually the ice will retreat so electricity shortages threaten to destabilize much that stream flows will decline and the power grid. "It will be like insurance power production will drop. Although cli that you c.an operate for several days;' Mr. 1 mate forec.asts suggest that, in coming dec Fischlin said. ades, Switzerland might make up for some Such sources of additional power will in of its lost ice with increases in rain and creasingly be needed as Switzerland moves c-J snow, retreating glaciers are expected to away from nuclear power and as climate " lead to as much as a 5 percent decline in change alters precipitation amounts and ( electricity production in some regions of the patterns. country. After four years of discussions with envi Glacial M ilan Already, the need for environmental ronmentalists, ending with an agreement, extepts • flows - releasing somewater from dams to KWO has begun the permitting process. maintain the ecologic.al health of a river - Construction could statt by 2022 and be fin I T ALY cuts into hydropower production. And ished by 2030. By then, even less of the Switzerland faces another problem of its glacier will remain. Sourccs: Power plant OO ta from WPSTA; Glocial cxtcnts from GLIM S.

Load more