Within ten weeks, the Federal Council has published two reports on Power-to-X. On 24 June it answered postulate 25.3022 with «The potential of Power-to-X as a contribution to security of supply»; on 2 September it followed with the report on synthetic energy carriers and seasonal storage requested by postulate 23.3023. Both reach a similar verdict: Power-to-X matters for industry, aviation, heavy transport and peak load, will largely have to be imported, and needs no additional instruments for now. Both are now on the agenda of the Power-to-X Congress Switzerland 2026 on 22 September in Bern – as a theme of their own.
That is a deliberate choice. The congress carries the title «Reality Check with Net Zero». There is no better test case for a reality check than two federal reports that describe the same technologies the people in the Kursaal are building, financing and permitting – and then draw conclusions that many of those people do not recognise from their own project pipelines.
What Bern has concluded
The June report compares Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Singapore, documents in detail how these import-dependent countries de-risk their Power-to-X industries – fifteen-year contracts for difference, auctions, tax incentives, certification schemes – and concludes that Switzerland should refrain from comparable measures. The September report adds the seasonal-storage perspective: Power-to-X can contribute to winter security of supply only to a limited extent in the short and medium term, because of conversion losses, long lead times and a Swiss subsurface that has never been systematically surveyed. Both reports point to the Hydrogen Strategy, the Round Table on Energy Storage and the forthcoming Energy Perspectives 2060 as the places where any further decisions will be taken.
SPIN has set out its reading of both documents in detail – on the June report and on the September report. In short: the analysis is thorough, the conclusions do not follow from it, and the barriers that actually stop final investment decisions in Switzerland sit at the ordinance level – certification, grandfathering, the tax treatment of synthetic fuels, missing customs tariff headings for RFNBO imports – which neither report addresses. The September report, moreover, argues from missing geological data while the same Federal Council has asked Parliament to abandon the programme that would collect it.
Why a congress is the right place for this
A written position paper can argue with a report. It cannot put the report next to a running plant. The congress can. The morning keynotes address precisely the question the two reports raise: Dr Gianfranco Guidati of ETH Zurich on Switzerland’s path to net zero, Dr Achim Schaadt of Fraunhofer ISE on the European import logic for Power-to-X and security of supply, Jochen Siebert on how China treats Power-to-X as part of its energy security, and Lukas Hoffmann of Porsche Consulting on global e-fuel roll-out plans and what they mean for Switzerland. Every one of these talks touches an assumption that the Federal Council has written into its reports – on imports, on conversion losses, on who moves first.
The afternoon World Café then does what a report cannot: it asks the room. Eight themed stations run in parallel in German, French and English, among them «Regulation – what needs to change?», «Investment and financing – from pilot projects to bankability», «Power-to-Gas and Power-to-Liquids – from pilot to market» and «Global cooperation – import logic, partnerships and Switzerland’s role». These are the exact chapters of the two federal reports, discussed by the people who have to live with them. The hosts collate the findings and present them to the plenary, and the results feed into SPIN’s follow-up work with the federal administration.
The day closes with a panel on the role of Power-to-X in the net-zero energy transition, with National Councillor Martin Bäumle – Co-President of SPIN and one of the sharpest critics of the June report’s conclusion – Prof. Markus Friedl of OST and Matthias Schnellmann of Metafuels. Before that, easyJet Switzerland CEO Jean-Marc Thévenaz and Metafuels CEO Saurabh Kapoor show what fossil-free flying looks like when it is being built rather than modelled.
What SPIN brings to the table
Postulate 23.3023 asked the Federal Council for two things: a stocktake and concrete proposals for the framework conditions under which synthetic energy carriers could be produced, transported, stored and financed. The stocktake was delivered; the proposals were declined. SPIN has already done that second half of the work. In July 2026 it published a paper listing 42 concrete regulatory blockages for Power-to-X in Switzerland, each with its practical effect and a proposed solution – from pre-certification and legacy protection to the full tax exemption of synthetic fuels and the missing tariff headings for imports. That paper will be on the table in Bern, in English and in German.
The point of the exercise is not to win an argument with the Federal Office of Energy, which is itself a partner of the congress. It is to make sure that when the Round Table on Energy Storage, the national storage strategy and the Energy Perspectives 2060 are drawn up, the practical experience of the Swiss Power-to-X sector is in the room – with numbers from 2026, not from 2020, and with waste heat, sector coupling and recycled CO₂ counted in.
Join the reality check
The Power-to-X Congress Switzerland 2026 brings together the former Power-to-Gas Congress and the SPIN Day for the first time. It is co-organised by energie-cluster.ch and the Swiss Power-to-X Collaborative Innovation Network (SPIN), with Réseau H2 Suisse Romande as strategic partner, and runs in German with simultaneous interpretation into French and English. Tuesday, 22 September 2026, 10–18h, Kursaal Bern, followed by an evening reception. CHF 416 for members of energie-cluster.ch, SPIN, Réseau H2 and the congress partners, CHF 520 for non-members. Registration closes on 21 September. Programme and registration →
Sources: Federal Council report «Potenzial von Power-to-X als Beitrag zur Versorgungssicherheit» (24 June 2026, in fulfilment of postulate 25.3022); Federal Council report «Synthetische Energieträger und saisonale Energiespeicher» (2 September 2026, in fulfilment of postulate 23.3023); congress programme, energie-cluster.ch.
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Power-to-X Congress Switzerland 2026 – 22 September 2026, 10–18h, Kursaal Bern: «Reality Check with Net Zero». Co-organised by energie-cluster.ch and SPIN, with partner Réseau H2 Suisse Romande. Programme and registration.