Different countries around the world are seeking to establish themselves successfully in the energy sector. This would be achieved thanks to the implementation of a broad portfolio of projects aimed at generating energy through renewable sources such as photovoltaic and wind energy. Switzerland has caused a great stir in the rest of the world by innovating with a new idea involving solar panels that has Europe on edge (and America, too).
Switzerland surprises with a new photovoltaic project
As many know, the energy transition that is being experienced globally has been marked mainly by renewable energy sources such as large wind farms or photovoltaic farms, beyond the fact that there are many other ways to generate clean and sustainable energy such as large hydroelectric plants and others that generate geothermal energy.
Well, Switzerland opted for one of the most popular renewable energy sources: energy generated from solar panels. However, the great energy project of this country goes far beyond the simple application of solar panels in terrestrial areas, but has opted for one of the new developments, floating solar panels.
It is important to remember that some time ago we have seen different projects where floating solar panels represent a great solution to generate clean energy from reservoirs, while they prevent water evaporation in strong drought periods.
Although there are currently no major droughts in the Swiss Alps, new reasons have been discovered to install floating solar panels on them. This would generate totally clean energy that contributes to the mitigation of energy generation through fossil fuels.
What is this project based on? A record-amount of solar panels has been installed
Since 2019, a Swiss company called Romande Energie has installed large floating solar farms on a reservoir in Switzerland called Lac des Toules. We are talking about one of the first reservoirs high above sea level that installed a floating solar farm, the same one that would have a total capacity of almost 448 kW.
Going into more detail about this impressive photovoltaic project that Switzerland has, the reservoir in question has about 1810 meters above sea level, carrying a total of 35 platforms of bifacial solar panels. Although this sounds like a large part of the lake covered, these solar panels would only be occupying about 2% of the reservoir’s surface area.
The floating platforms that hold the bifacial solar panels are held to the bottom of the lake for a long period of time, from the month of June to December they would remain floating. This is because this is the time when the reservoir is full due to snowmelt, and from January to May they would remain perfectly positioned on the ground.
Learn more about the environmental impact of these solar panels.
On the other hand, a group of scientists from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences has been doing some research on the installation of solar panels on this particular reservoir and discovered that these 35 photovoltaic energy producing platforms would recover the energy investment in a little more than two years.
It was even discovered that the results of this floating solar power system demonstrates a clear reduction in carbon footprint. This installation emits approximately 94g of carbon dioxide per kWh, a figure advantageously lower than that of any traditional solar power installation.
This major project with solar panels in the Alps, Switzerland, represents an important step forward in the implementation of clean and sustainable energy that contributes to the global energy transition, and would even have certain advantages over traditionally used photovoltaic installations.
