this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2026
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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 2 days ago by UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
182 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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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[–] karlhungus@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Wait till they find out about batteries!

[–] Ninjasftw@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

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.ca 1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 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.

[–] Ghoelian@piefed.social 1 points 20 hours ago

Not a problem if you have your own panels and your own battery.

I'm not a city planner so i dont know where they'd go if you want to support the whole country, maybe ask one of them?

Also, you don't need to immediately take over the electricity of the whole damn country. Just start with one battery park somewhere, that already helps somewhat, and build out from there.