Technology

Switzerland is one of the only countries where it makes any sense to do this kind of nonsense because they're already almost completely on renewable power. I shudder to think of how high the installation cost per watt is when you need rope access teams drilling into concrete. Some IRATA certified electrician probably bought a vacation home with the money from just this project.

'wow the panels are 50% more efficient during winter, and it only cost 1000% more to install compared to a conventional rooftop'

*Ok I checked, it cost about 3.6 CHF per nameplate watt. Roughly double residential rooftop solar in Switzerland, which itself is again about double what a ground mount array costs. So still bad, not nearly as bad as I thought. This also is only the original install cost. Apparently they've had to do significant repairs, including replacing 270 panels, because of snow and ice damage. From the bit of extra research I did on this I think the primary purpose of this install was to ease the path to getting more alpine solar installation approved. Because this definitely isn't economically viable and I don't think they expected it to be. But there is potential for economically viable alpine solar farms if they can get approval for development.

**By the way this article and the image for it are AI slop, the actual install is slightly less absurd than the article makes it look.

::: spoiler the actual dam The install generates 3x more power than an equivalent solar farm at lower altitude during the winter months, but costs 4x more to build. Doesn't really add up. For a smaller investment you could have the same amount of winter production and 3x as much production during the other 3/4 of the year.