Swiss Energy

🇨🇭 Part of the Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio

⚡ swiss-energy-mcp

License: MIT Python 3.11+ MCP Data Source

MCP server for Swiss energy data from the Federal Office of Energy (SFOE/BFE) via GeoAdmin REST API and opendata.swiss — no API key required.

🇩🇪 Deutsche Version

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Overview

swiss-energy-mcp gives AI assistants structured, location-based access to Switzerland's energy infrastructure. Built on open geodata from the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE/BFE) via the GeoAdmin REST API and the opendata.swiss catalogue — completely authentication-free.

The server is part of a growing portfolio of Swiss open data MCP servers. Think of it as the energy atlas counterpart to swiss-road-mobility-mcp: while the latter maps mobility, this server maps where Switzerland produces electricity, where solar potential exists, and which municipalities hold the "Energiestadt" label.

Anchor demo query: "Which power plants are within 20 km of the school in Wädenswil — and is the municipality an Energiestadt?"

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Features

• 🔍 10 ready-to-use tools covering all major energy data layers from SFOE/BFE
• ⚡ Power plants — all types: photovoltaic, hydro, wind, biomass, nuclear, with optional category filter
• 💨 Wind turbines — detailed data incl. manufacturer, model, hub height, annual production
• 💧 Hydropower plants — type, status, turbine capacity, expected annual output
• ☀️ PV large installations — project name, capacity, annual/winter production, altitude
• 🌿 Biogas plants — plant name, output
• 🏙️ Energiestädte — municipalities with the Swiss "Energiestadt" label (score, year awarded, audits)
• 🏠 Solar roof potential — suitability category, area, orientation, and slope per roof segment
• 📊 Location energy profile — combines 5 layers into a single overview for any Swiss location
• 🗂️ SFOE dataset search — full-text search across SFOE publications on opendata.swiss
• ✅ Status check — verifies availability of both upstream APIs
• ☁️ Dual transport — stdio for Claude Desktop, Streamable HTTP for cloud deployment

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Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+
• uv (recommended) or pip

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Installation

Claude Desktop (stdio transport)

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "swiss-energy-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["swiss-energy-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Config file locations:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Local development

git clone https://github.com/malkreide/swiss-energy-mcp.git
cd swiss-energy-mcp
uv sync
uv run swiss-energy-mcp

Cloud / HTTP transport (Streamable HTTP)

For use via claude.ai in the browser (e.g. on managed workstations without local software):

SWISS_ENERGY_TRANSPORT=http uvx swiss-energy-mcp

💡 "stdio for the developer laptop, HTTP for the browser."

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Quickstart

Once connected in Claude Desktop, try:

What power plants are within 20 km of Bern?
Show me all wind turbines in the Jura region.
Is Zürich an Energiestadt? What's their score?
What is the solar potential of rooftops near lat=47.37, lon=8.54?
Give me a full energy profile for the region around Lucerne.
Find SFOE datasets about hydropower.

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Available Tools

Tool	Description
energy_find_power_plants	All electricity generation plants within a radius (optional category filter)
energy_find_wind_turbines	Wind turbines with manufacturer, model, hub height
energy_find_hydro_plants	Hydropower plants with capacity and expected output
energy_find_pv_installations	Large PV installations with annual/winter production
energy_find_biogas_plants	Biogas plants
energy_find_energy_cities	Municipalities with "Energiestadt" label
energy_solar_potential	Solar suitability of roof segments at a location
energy_location_profile	Combined energy profile (5 layers) for a location
energy_search_bfe_datasets	Full-text search over SFOE datasets on opendata.swiss
energy_check_status	Check availability of GeoAdmin and opendata.swiss APIs

All tools accept WGS84 coordinates (lat/lon). Conversion to Swiss LV95 is handled internally.

Example Use Cases

Query	Tool
"Power plants near Bern (20 km radius)?"	energy_find_power_plants
"Wind turbines in the Jura?"	energy_find_wind_turbines
"Is Zürich an Energiestadt?"	energy_find_energy_cities
"Solar potential of rooftops near lat=47.37, lon=8.54?"	energy_solar_potential
"Full energy profile for Lucerne region?"	energy_location_profile
"SFOE datasets on hydropower?"	energy_search_bfe_datasets

→ More use cases by audience →

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Data Sources

Source	URL	Auth
GeoAdmin REST API (swisstopo)	api3.geo.admin.ch	None
opendata.swiss CKAN API	opendata.swiss/api/3/action	None

BFE Layers used:

• ch.bfe.elektrizitaetsproduktionsanlagen
• ch.bfe.windenergieanlagen
• ch.bfe.statistik-wasserkraftanlagen
• ch.bfe.photovoltaik-grossanlagen
• ch.bfe.biogasanlagen
• ch.bfe.energiestaedte
• ch.bfe.solarenergie-eignung-daecher

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Configuration

All variables use the SWISS_ENERGY_ prefix and are validated at startup.

Environment variable	Default	Description
SWISS_ENERGY_TRANSPORT	stdio	Transport mode: stdio or http
SWISS_ENERGY_HOST	127.0.0.1	Host for HTTP transport. Bind 0.0.0.0 only inside a container.
SWISS_ENERGY_PORT	8000	Port for HTTP transport
SWISS_ENERGY_CORS_ORIGINS	https://claude.ai	Comma-separated allowed CORS origins (HTTP transport)
SWISS_ENERGY_ALLOWED_HOSTS	(empty)	Comma-separated inbound Host allow-list. Only needed for a non-loopback bind.
SWISS_ENERGY_LOG_LEVEL	INFO	Log level: DEBUG / INFO / WARNING / ERROR
SWISS_ENERGY_HTTP_TIMEOUT	20	Upstream HTTP timeout in seconds

Both list-valued variables also accept a JSON array — ["https://a.test"] — in addition to the comma-separated form.

See .env.example for a template.

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MCP Protocol Version

This server speaks two protocol eras over the same endpoint. The client's first request on a connection decides which one applies; a later claim from the other era is refused.

Era	Revision	Who reaches it
initialize handshake	2024-11-05 … 2025-11-25	What today's clients speak. The server answers with the revision asked for, or with the 2025-11-25 ceiling when the request asks for something newer.
Per-request envelope	2026-07-28	A request carrying the 2026-07-28 _meta envelope opens a modern connection.

Both revisions are pinned in tests/test_protocol_version.py and asserted against the installed SDK, so a Dependabot bump of mcp cannot move either one silently. The handshake ceiling is measured against a live initialize through the assembled ASGI stack, not read off a constant name.

Note that the SDK's LATEST_PROTOCOL_VERSION is an alias for the modern era, not for the handshake era — pinning against it alone would leave the era that current clients actually negotiate free to drift.

Update policy. When the gate fails, do not edit the constant blindly: read the spec changelog between the two revisions, verify the server still behaves, then move the constant, this section, README.de.md and CHANGELOG.md together.

Server identity

Every modern-era response carries the server's identity under _meta["io.modelcontextprotocol/serverInfo"]; the handshake era carries the same block once, in initialize.serverInfo:

{
  "name": "swiss_energy_mcp",
  "title": "Swiss Energy MCP",
  "version": "<version from the package metadata>",
  "websiteUrl": "https://github.com/malkreide/swiss-energy-mcp"
}

version comes from the installed package metadata, never from a literal in src/ — scripts/check_version_sync.py rejects a hand-maintained number there. Both eras are measured through the assembled ASGI stack in tests/test_server_identity.py: the SDK default for version is the empty string, so a missing constructor argument is silent rather than red.

MCP Primitives

The server uses all three MCP primitives:

• Tools — 10 read-only tools (see above). Every search tool returns an EnergyResponse envelope: structured results plus a Markdown summary, explicit source / license attribution, and a match_type field.
• Resource — energy://layers, the static catalogue of BFE GeoAdmin layers.
• Prompt — energy_site_assessment, a guided location-analysis template.

Development Phase

The server is in Phase 1 (read-only). See docs/roadmap.md for the phased architecture and docs/security.md for the egress allow-list, SSRF protection and trifecta assessment.

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Safety & Limits

Aspect	Details
Access	Read-only (readOnlyHint: true) — the server cannot modify or delete any data
Personal data	No personal data — all sources are aggregated, public infrastructure data
Rate limits	Built-in per-query caps (max 50 search results, default 5 km radius)
Timeout	20 seconds per API call
Authentication	No API keys required — both APIs are publicly accessible
Licenses	All data under open licenses via opendata.swiss (OGD)
Terms of Service	Subject to ToS of the respective data sources: GeoAdmin, opendata.swiss, SFOE/BFE

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Architecture

┌─────────────────┐     ┌───────────────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────────────┐
│   Claude / AI   │────▶│   Swiss Energy MCP        │────▶│  SFOE / BFE Open Data    │
│   (MCP Host)    │◀────│   (MCP Server)            │◀────│                          │
└─────────────────┘     │                           │     │  GeoAdmin REST API       │
                        │  10 Tools                 │     │  (api3.geo.admin.ch)     │
                        │  Stdio | HTTP             │     │                          │
                        │                           │     │  opendata.swiss CKAN     │
                        │  server.py (FastMCP)      │     │  (opendata.swiss)        │
                        │  api_client.py            │     └──────────────────────────┘
                        │   LV95 conversion         │
                        │   GeoAdmin queries        │
                        └───────────────────────────┘

Infrastructure Components

Component	Metaphor	Function
api_client.py	Switchboard	Handles HTTP requests, coordinate conversion, error handling
LV95 converter	Translator	Converts WGS84 (lat/lon) to Swiss coordinate system
server.py	Storefront	Exposes all 10 tools via FastMCP

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Project Structure

swiss-energy-mcp/
├── src/
│   └── swiss_energy_mcp/
│       ├── server.py          # FastMCP setup, lifespan, entry point
│       ├── settings.py        # Typed configuration (pydantic-settings)
│       ├── logging_config.py  # Structured JSON logging to stderr
│       ├── api_client.py      # HTTP client, egress guard, LV95 conversion
│       ├── models.py          # Pydantic input/output models
│       ├── formatting.py      # Markdown summary builders
│       ├── resources.py       # Layer-catalogue resource + prompt
│       └── tools/             # One module per tool group
│           ├── installations.py   # power, wind, hydro, PV, biogas
│           ├── places.py          # solar, Energiestadt, location profile
│           └── catalog.py         # dataset search, status
├── tests/
│   ├── test_unit.py         # Pure-unit tests (coords, formatting, egress)
│   ├── test_tools.py        # Tool tests with respx-mocked APIs
│   └── test_live.py         # Live integration tests (marked `live`)
├── docs/                    # roadmap.md, security.md
├── Dockerfile               # Multi-stage build, non-root user
├── pyproject.toml
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── CONTRIBUTING.md          # Contribution guide (English)
├── CONTRIBUTING.de.md       # Contribution guide (German)
├── SECURITY.md              # Security policy (English)
├── SECURITY.de.md           # Security policy (German)
├── LICENSE
├── README.md                # This file (English)
└── README.de.md             # German version

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Known Limitations

• GeoAdmin radius search: Maximum search radius depends on layer density; very large radii may return partial results
• Solar potential: Layer ch.bfe.solarenergie-eignung-daecher covers building footprints — not all roof types are classified
• Energiestadt: Only municipalities with active label are included; historical entries may be incomplete
• opendata.swiss CKAN: Full-text search covers metadata only, not document contents

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Testing

# Unit tests (no API key required)
PYTHONPATH=src pytest tests/ -m "not live"

# Live integration tests (network access required)
PYTHONPATH=src pytest tests/ -m "live"

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Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md

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Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md (🇩🇪 Deutsch)

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Security

See SECURITY.md (🇩🇪 Deutsch) for the security policy and posture summary, and docs/security.md for the full technical security model.

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License

MIT License — see LICENSE

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Author

Hayal Oezkan · malkreide

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Credits & Related Projects

• Data: SFOE/BFE via GeoAdmin — Swiss Federal Office of Energy
• Data: opendata.swiss — Swiss Open Government Data portal
• Protocol: Model Context Protocol — Anthropic / Linux Foundation
• Related: swiss-road-mobility-mcp — MCP server for Swiss mobility data
• Related: zurich-opendata-mcp — MCP server for Zurich city open data
• Portfolio: Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio

Installation

Run via uv's uvx — no clone or manual install needed. Add to your MCP client config (mcpServers for Claude Desktop, Cursor and Windsurf; use a top-level servers key for VS Code in .vscode/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "swiss-energy-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "swiss-energy-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}