Switzerland bolted 5,000 solar panels onto a dam wall 8,000 feet up in the freezing Alps where everyone said solar made no sense, and the plant now makes three times more winter power than any farm down in the valleys
www.ecoportal.net
High in the Swiss Alps, on a concrete dam wall more than 8,000 feet above the sea, someone bolted thousands of solar panels to a place almost no one thought

Up on the dam, almost everything that looks like a problem becomes an advantage.

The plant sits above the fog line, in thin, clear air that lets far more sunlight through.

The higher you go, the stronger and cleaner the sunlight becomes.

Cold actually helps, because solar panels work more efficiently when they are not baking in heat.

And then there is the snow, which acts like a giant mirror, bouncing extra light up onto the panels from below.

Scientists call it the albedo effect, and it can lift a mountain plant’s output well beyond anything possible in the valley.

A test site at a similar height recorded yearly output far above a typical Swiss plant.

    • gian English
      4·
      21 hours ago

      Yep, but require much more space. And it could be not available when you need it.

    • luciferofastora@feddit.orgEnglish
      3·
      23 hours ago

      I agree with you, content-wise, but there’s no need to insult people. It provokes emotions that add nothing reasonable and productive.

      Let’s work together on a better, kinder world <3

    • Ninjasftw@lemmy.worldEnglish
      42·
      2 days ago

      So you’re happy to go without power after sunset then?
      Until we have more storage options or diversified sources then that’s what you get. Or do you think it will all happen by magic?
      Maybe try being less rude unless you have a solution that doesn’t just involve wishful thinking.

        • Ninjasftw@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          1 day ago

          Ffs this is exactly what I mean… To power Switzerland for only 6 hours (38GWh), you would need approximately 30,000 to 35,000 utility-scale batteries. Where and how exactly are you building them?

          • karlhungus@lemmy.caEnglish
            1·
            10 hours ago

            Must solve all problems at the same time for entire country, can’t possibly wind things down while building up alternatives. Only good solution is nuclear, ignore all previous nuclear issues, they were one offs that only happened because people were stupid. We now smart humans will never have stupid or corrupt people.

            Really I don’t even dislike nuclear, some people treat it as the only option when there are clearly alternatives, and solar and batteries appears to be one.