Media Release, June 14, 2022
With renewable oil to new horizons
Zurich, June 14, 2022, “With renewable oil to new horizons” is the motto of SPIN DAY 2022, which will take place on June 23 at the Innovation Park Zürich in Dübendorf. The symposium, which this year is dedicated to the topic of “synthetic liquid fuels, especially for aviation” will be opened by Federal Councillor Simonetta Sommaruga and Cantonal Councillor Carmen Walker Späh. At this stage, more than 130 participants from 75 organizations from research, industry, politics, administration and civil society have registered. Among other things, they will work on new goals for key technologies of the energy transition.
SPIN stands for Swiss Power-to-X Collaborative Innovation Network. Founded in 2021 and chaired by National Councillor Martin Bäumle, the association’s mission is to promote exchange between power-to-X stakeholders from research, industry, politics, administration and civil society in Switzerland and to facilitate the creation of appropriate framework conditions for power-to-X.
The term “Power-to-X” describes innovative key technologies for energy conversion, which can make a decisive contribution to defossilization – and thus to achieving climate targets. These are mostly processes that convert renewable energy sources with CO2 or nitrogen into chemically storable, liquid or gaseous energy sources. It can also be used to produce other chemical products such as plastics. In addition, power-to-X processes offer solutions for coupling the electricity, gas, heat, and mobility sectors and are seen as a key to the energy transition.
The overarching goal of SPIN is to accelerate 100% renewable energy supply in Switzerland and globally, and to achieve at least net-zero greenhouse gas emissions (especially CO2) by 2050.
To this end, participants at SPIN DAY will work on common goals and the most important building blocks for a Swiss roadmap in workshops. In addition, a synthesis paper will be adopted.
Among the speakers and workshop leaders are top researchers from Empa, ZHAW, DLR and TU Hamburg, the CEOs of SWISS and VARO Energy, the deputy head of armaments and head of the science and technology competence area at the Federal Office of Armaments Procurement armasuisse, representatives of startups such as Synhelion, Caphenia and Climeworks, of Switzerland Global Enterprise, Repower and other institutions.
The organizers expect between 130 and 150 participants from research, industry, politics, administration and civil society.
SPIN DAY 2022 is supported by the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA), Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE), Swiss Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS), the Office of Economic Affairs and Labor of the Canton of Zurich, Airborn Fuels Switzerland AG, Axpo Holding AG, CAPHENIA GmbH, EKZ, Hitachi Zosen INOVA, Pilatus Flugzeugwerke AG, Repower AG, Silent-Power AG, Swissmem, and VARO Energy Group.