Swiss Alpine solar farms struggle to deliver on their promise

The Sedrun Solar park in southeastern Switzerland is currently under construction. Keystone / Urs Flüeler

Switzerland launched the Solar Express programme to simplify and speed up the construction of large solar parks in high-mountain regions and boost winter electricity production. But four years after parliament approved the initiative, only four projects are under construction and the original electricity generation target is unlikely to be met.

Since last year, Switzerland’s first large Alpine solar farm has been feeding electricity into the grid. Nearly half of the Sedrun Solar facility, located in the municipality of Tujetsch in canton Graubünden, has been completed. Once fully operational, it is expected to supply 6,500 households and cover an area equivalent to 36 football pitches.

High in the Alps, solar panels generate more electricity than in the lowlands. Built at an altitude of around 2,000 metres, the plant is designed to produce lots of electricity in winter using bifacial solar panels.

“They generate solar energy from sunlight on both the front and back,” Ciril Deplazes, managing director of Energia Alpina, the plant’s operator, told Swiss public broadcaster RTS.

“At the moment sunlight levels are low, but when there is snow, output from the rear side accounts for up to 20% of total production.” Last winter the plant generated more electricity than expected.

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Mixed national picture for Alpine solar projects

Without the Solar Express scheme, which provides federal support for photovoltaic installations in the Swiss Alps, the Sedrun facility would never have been built. The government is covering up to 60% of the investment cost, contributing CHF50 million ($60 million) towards the project’s total budget of CHF87 million.

But while Alpine solar is delivering promising results on the slopes above Sedrun, the national picture is far more mixed. Of the 30 planned Alpine solar projects, only four are currently under construction, none of them in French-speaking Switzerland.

In canton Valais, ambitions were especially high when the initiative was launched. Grengiols, in the Upper Valais region, was set to host Switzerland’s largest solar farm. Yet not a single solar panel has been installed. The project has been scaled back following opposition from environmental groups and remains under public consultation.

In the Val d’Anniviers region, also in canton Valais, final planning approval has recently been granted for a solar park. But construction has yet to begin because the project’s profitability remains uncertain.

“At present, our estimates show that the costs are still relatively high compared with other electricity generation systems,” says mayor David Melly. “We therefore need to look at how we can optimise the whole thing.”

Output forecast slashed

Initial projections suggested Alpine solar farms could cover around 3% of Switzerland’s annual electricity consumption, particularly during winter. Today, federal authorities say this is more likely to be closer to 1%.

“Progress has been slower than we anticipated because these projects are technically far more challenging than expected,” Frank Rutschmann, head of the Renewable Energy Section at the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, told RTS.

“We have to contend with strong winds, snow and grid connections that are sometimes located very far away. All of this is very complex, time-consuming and more expensive than originally anticipated,” he said.

Swiss authorities are now focusing mainly on rooftop solar installations, a development that continues to expand rapidly with no sign of slowing.

Translated from French, sub-edited by Simon Bradley