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Switzerland bolted 5,000 solar panels onto a dam wall 8,000 feet up in the freezing Alps. The plant now makes three times more winter power than any farm down in the valleys (www.ecoportal.net)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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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.

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[–] 32 points 4 months ago (10 children)

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.

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  • [–] 21 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    usually snow slides off solar panels fairly easily since they are smooth, tilted, and absorb heat.

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  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    It can build up overnight though, so I think the question remains valid.

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  • [+] 26 points 4 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)
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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    Just to add a little anecdotal story, our solar panels were quite good at getting rid of snow. It took a little while after the sun come up but once a little bit of the panels were exposed, it started to go fast.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    I was more referring to snowpack - at this elevation, multiple days of snowfall accumulating several feet deep is common in some parts of the world. For reference, the tallest mountain in Colorado is 3000 feet lower. I assume it's a pretty arid region, or they wouldn't have built it.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    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.

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