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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 1 day ago by UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 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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[-] yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Why would you be heating at night?

Like seriously, I don't know anyone who doesn't turn their heating significantly down before going to bed. You only need to heat the bedrooms which are also generally colder.

Same with air conditioning. It's primarily needed when it's actually hot, which - as it turns out - is when the sun is shining and energy prices are low.

Besides: It completely ignores decentralized energy storage. Households with batteries can just let them charge when energy prices are low and discharge when prices are high.

There's a reason smart meters are starting to be mandated. People will need to adjust their habits slightly¹ but that's just the price to pay for sustainable energy.

¹Like very slightly. As in checking the energy price forecast before doing laundry.

Edit: A couple basic introductions to the topic to read up on if you're interested:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_meter (also read up on AMI)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_grid

this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2026
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