Swiss Alpine Photovoltaic System Begins To Crumble After Just 2 Years

Photovoltaic projects crumble in harsh alpine environments…Swiss solar panels on dam project fails after just 2 years. 

Who cares if it works or not? 

It’s often how the green racket works: Conjure up some green energy producing pie-in-the-sky project, no matter how unfeasible it may be, propose it to technically illiterate bureaucrats – who permit and fund it with little hesitation – build it, and, after realizing it won’t ever work, abandon it and let the next generation deal with the mess. In the meantime, you will have earned a tidy sum of money.

The latest likely example of such a project is “Axpo in Glarus Süd”, described at Blackout News here: “Solar panels at Muttsee dam fail after two years – solar plant not suitable for mountain use.”

PV system installed on a dam in Switzerland. AI-generated image, Source: Blackout News. 

The Swiss Axpo Glarus Süd solar project consisted of installing solar panels on a dam with ideal orientation.

Extremely harsh environment

It was heralded as a pioneering project and designed to last 20 years while providing green power (at least in the summertime) to nearly 3000 people. But, as Blackout News reports: “After just two years, considerable problems are already apparent. Of the 5,000 or so solar panels installed, around 270 are damaged, reports the newspaper Südostschweiz.”

A solar system in the harsh environment of the Swiss Alps? What could possibly go wrong?

Surely the builders and those approving the project had to have been familiar with extremely harsh winter conditions and massive snowfalls  of the Swiss Alps, and that the system would never have a chance. Obviously no one cares much about reality anymore. The important thing, it seems, is to grab all that green cash and make a stash.

Panels damaged after just 2 years

Already, just 2 years in operation, 270 panels (5%) of the Muttsee project need to be replaced, and that at an exorbitant cost. Just check out the Axpo promotion video and take a look at the equipment needed to build the project. The helicopters, cranes, rigging and this caliber of personnel aren’t cheap.

Axpo promotion video: “Construction start of Switzerland’s largest solar facility.”

So far I haven’t found data on the project’s return on investment time.

Another embarrassing fact: “The full extent of the damage only became clear when the snow at 2500 meters above sea level had completely melted,” reports Blackout News.

No one became aware of the damage until spring had arrived?

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September 22, 2024 at 05:22AM

Grangemouth Refinery DCNN 5237 – A Natural Location?

56.00932 -3.68654 Met Office Assessed CIMO Class 4 Installed 1/1/1969

There are probably numerous reasons for installing a weather station in the centre of a major oil refinery. However, historically recording temperature of the natural environment is most certainly not one that immediately springs to mind. Google street view indicates numerous cooling towers, chimneys, fractionating columns and everything associated with a major industrial site. Natural vegetation is in remarkably short supply with the sole exception being the verge to the very busy A.904 on which this weather station is located.

The above image is flattering………

The other side of the road is much more typical.

Or perhaps the same side looking north.

However you consider this site, it is certainly not representative of the natural landscape. Anthropogenic it most certainly is and it does produce very large quantities of refined fossil fuels (for a while longer at least) but it is not a credible site to contribute data for the historic temperature record. There are no fewer than 8 cooling towers in the above images and the small matter of Grangemouth combined cycle gas turbine power station. Quite where the Met Office feels all that waste heat is going is beyond me to explain.

Does the Met Office really consider such locations suitably representative or do they just adhere to tape measuring to the nearest piece of tarmac from the screen to justify its location? The hedge probably is just far enough away to claim it is Class 4 and the grass is neatly cut but are those really the main parameters to be concerned with?

There are far too many compromised locations such as these.

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September 22, 2024 at 05:21AM

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Open thread for comments on any subject.

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September 22, 2024 at 04:01AM

The CEO of WWF is paid up to a million dollars to save “nature”

It takes a lot of money to get a Green saviour out of bed…

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September 22, 2024 at 03:35AM