Switzerland has awarded federal funding to a carbon capture and storage initiative at a biomass power plant. The winning proposal, submitted by Regionalwerke Baden AG, will receive up to 41.7 million Swiss francs ($52.6 million).

Developed in partnership with BKW AEK Contracting AG and Linde Gas Schweiz AG, and supported by Airfix Carbon AG and South Pole AG, the project focuses on capturing emissions from the Otelfingen Biomass Power Plant. The plant is fueled by waste wood.

Since its modernisation and expansion in 2010/11, the plant has produced approximately 19 gigawatt hours of electricity annually. It supplies heating both for the local industrial sites and for a continuously expanding proportion of the village of Otelfingen.

The captured carbon dioxide is to be transported to a storage facility elsewhere in Europe, where it will be permanently sequestered. The remainder is intended for reuse as a climate-neutral industrial gas, replacing fossil-based carbon dioxide in industrial processes.

The initiative also introduces a separation technology that has not previously been deployed in Switzerland, marking a technical milestone for the domestic energy sector.

The funding decision forms part of a broader set of climate-focused tenders launched in 2025 under the country’s Climate and Innovation Act. A separate program aimed at building charging infrastructure for electric trucks has also moved forward, with the Swiss Commercial Vehicle Association and consulting firm EBP selected to lead implementation. Since its launch at the start of 2026, the program has attracted more than 100 applications, backed by 20 million Swiss francs in federal support.

The measures fall under the ITINERO program, which channels up to 1.2 billion Swiss francs in public funding through 2030 to support emissions reductions and mitigate investment risks tied to key infrastructure.