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.
someone bolted thousands of solar panels to a place almost no one thought was worth it.
“Someone”
2026 journalism
You’ll never believe who!!
“We went to bed one night, and when we woke the next morning, they were there! Someone must have bolted them on.”
…the assumption was simple, that solar belongs low and warm, on sunny roofs and flat fields, not up in the freezing thin air of the mountains.
Well that’s a stupid assumption. what other kind of electronic works better when it’s super hot??
The country makes plenty of power in summer, but runs short in winter, when demand climbs and it has to import electricity.
That gap is set to grow as the nation closes its nuclear plants.
Damn, two stupid ideas from the Swiss. At least the fabled “someone” put those solar panels up there. 🙄
That’s cool and all but when are we getting a dyson sphere?
flipping through the SpaceX IPO
Sooner, if you give Mecha Hitler another trillion dollars
That’s a Dam good idea
But goats be pissed.
I’d imagine that goats can walk on solar panels too.
Without even damaging them…
Swis showing off their awsomeness again
In the United States, this is called treason because it makes Donald Trump PP in his pants
This thread is now about 'Murica
This is the Internet. Everything is about America. for fucks sake, we invented it.
sorry to sound like a dick, but seriously… If you don’t like that, invent your own Internet
invent your own Internet
Seriously, please. The one we have now sucks.
Lies!
Donald’s adult diapers stop his PP from reaching his pants.
Facts!! 🙌
Those are the lies
Only a little bit of poop*, once in a while… okay! 😤😡
Just during press briefings. “Everyone out!”
I tried (but not very hard) to check what the highest altitude dam in the world is, but searches kept giving me the tallest dams instead. But, for anyone who’s wondering, I also looked up what the highest altitude solar farm in the world is, and it turns out it’s the Huadian Tibet Caipeng project, at 5,228 meters (17,152 feet) above sea level on the highest plateau in the world. I have to wonder if snow accumulation outweighs the benefits of the lower temperatures and thinner atmosphere.
usually snow slides off solar panels fairly easily since they are smooth, tilted, and absorb heat.
It can build up overnight though, so I think the question remains valid.
Smooth and tilted still applies. Also, being a mesa, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was wind as a factor. Turns out the Mars rovers Opportunity and Spirit ended up lasting longer than originally expected in part because the winds on Mars ended up cleaning the accumulated dust on the solar panels.
Good point, great comparison.
yeah i mean even after it’s built up it will slide off in sheets when there is enough sun.
Maybe search for highest-altitude reservoirs instead of dams?
It doesn’t really answer your question, but this article calls the Muttsee the highest reservoir in Europe, at least that’s something.
I would imagine that you could set up some sort of insulated battery and/or capacitor setup that could be used to melt off any accumulated snow and ice once a storm passes with some heating elements embedded in the photovoltaics. Though, that probably introduces the issue of falling frozen debris striking panels lower down on the dam. Nonetheless, given the efficiency gains, it’s probably a problem worth solving - especially since this Swiss proof-of-concept seems to be working out so well.
photovoltaic panels are just giant diodes you can run them in reverse and every panel gets that 0.6V voltage drop like any other silicon junction
apacitor setup that could be used to melt off any accumulated snow and ice once a storm passes with some heating elements embedded in the photovoltaics.
Content farm “articles” are difficult to distinguish from AI.
It’s a good idea, if the dam faces a good direction (North probably isn’t worth it) even without the additional benefits of altitude.
Good shout.
Here is an older article on the start of construction from a publicly funded news organization:
Here is the article from when it was done (September 2022!), but this one isn’t available in English I’m afraid:
As a primary source, here’s the project page of one of the involved companies:
https://www.axpo.com/ch/en/energy/generation-and-distribution/solar-power/alpinsolar.html
I’m 100% sure the dam wall is not North-facing.
Mind you, this a great idea for a Dam facing the right way (ideally South).
I mean even if it’s not south facing, im sure some production is still better than no production (to a certain point, obv there needs to be some multiple of ROI to make sense)
The article is written in a very terse style, but it does mention the dam happens to be (a) south facing, and (b) above the fog line, so it can produce in the winter when fog covers the lowlands. It also mentions that there is a bit of an albedo affect – the snow reflects some of the sun back up to the panels.
Article reads like AI trash. Is there an actual source?
There was a lot of news about the Muttsee Dam solar project a few years ago, so it’s a real thing and a good thing. But it’s hardly current news. It’s been operational since 2022.
What type of datacenter are “AIps”? /j
I’m confused by the albedo argument. The reflected light would need to reach the solar panels, but the panels are facing up. So how could a surface of ice/snow be sufficiently facing the solar panels to reflect a significant amount of sun light towards the panels?
Edit: nevermind, using my hands to draw imaginary angles, I’ve concluded it can work with a facing normal white slope for some sun position if the orientation is favorable.
if you look at the picture in the article, you can see they’re not angled up very far. They’re actually almost vertical.
Hold out your hand flat, palm facing straight up. Now tilt it at any angle without going perpendicular to the ground, but let’s just use 45 degrees for example.
With your hand tilted backwards just a bit, but still facing upward overall, look across the room and you can predict where you would need to squat down to see the palm of your hand even if you were on the ground.
This shows light can travel in a straight line from that spot on the ground to the palm of your hand even though your palm is still facing upward overall, albeit at an angle of 45 degrees (and there is a spot on the ground that works at any angle, but the spot is farther away if the hand is tilted less).
Apparently bifacial panels are a thing, TIL!
bifacial
I should call him…
Angled upwards, but not so much that reflected light from below can’t hit the panels
Any ideas on an potential increase in ambient temperature from those dark surfaces of the panels?
Offsetting or replacing climate warming electricity generation, especially through what seems to be an increased efficiency, is great, but we’re still doing the climate warming methods.
And, not a statement of “don’t do this”, just concerned about regions of cold and frozen environments given our present course and interested in the data.
Solar modules are often cooler than their surroundings when they’re operating, since they transform ~25% of incoming solar energy into electricity instead of heat.
Isn’t it just the same heat energy that would have been beating down on the environment otherwise (plus some sort of reduction since the panels are converting some of it to power)
The high temperature efficiency drop off of solar panels is something I’ve only recently become aware of, but am glad this helps with that.
Even in hotter areas, I’ll bet a vertical / near vertical orientation would help them vent heat (if placed on dams there).
Does anyone have any specific experience with this kind of engineering to confirm/deny that would actually help?
For the same cooling reason some places have been covering irrigation canals with solar panels. The water cools down the panels and it reduces water loss through evaporation.
If you’re referring to convection, probably not. Convective motion of air is so slight that even the tiniest breeze would do more to cool the panels. I’m not sure there’s any outdoor location in the entire world with stagnant enough air that it would matter. It’s better to just angle them to catch the most sunlight.
My biggest concern is that I have to assume there’s a far greater initial cost for installation, in addition to higher costs for maintenance versus a more traditional farm
Sir this is a Switzerlands.
Definitely likely. But what’s the $/kwh? And is it worth the price for the added year-round contribution to the grid relative to, say, natural gas imports or coal plant construction/maintenance?
One thing they note is the difficulty of building and maintaining wind farms in the region, which I found surprising. And wind has undercut fossil fuel power for almost a decade. The appeal of solar energy is that these panels are incredibly cheap and light weight, making this kind of installation possible at all. Virtually no moving parts. Comparatively little to maintain. Modular such that if one component fails, it doesn’t shut down the whole installation.
I think you might be surprised how appealing this setup is, even in remote locations.
As someone who maintains solar installations… this looks like a goddamn nightmare to maintain. Trying to hunt down an arc fault or a loose mc4 connector on this would be impossible.
