The WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) in Switzerland is investigating how the solar yield can be optimized in snow covered with snow. It is foreseen that the results will help to place PV systems on mountains, so that they use light that is reflected by adjacent slopes.
A research project in Switzerland Works to determine where and how solar modules can best be placed in mountain areas to generate as much electricity as possible.
The research is being conducted by the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF), with PhD student and researcher Anja Mödl who leads the work.
Mödl works in the Meierhof region in East -Switzerland and uses sensors that can register wavelengths of between 340 and 2500 nanometers to measure both the incoming sunlight and the sunlight that is reflected by the snow.
Image: Anja Mödl/Jochen Bettzieche/SLF
In mountainous areas, most of the sunlight that reflects snow on other slopes, which in turn reflects the sunlight again. Since the snow surface reflects different wavelengths to varying degrees, the light spectrum changes with every reflection.
The research emphasizes that the intensity of certain wavelengths becomes stronger over time than in the first, incoming sunlight. Mödl says that she wants to discover how the spectra differ in different locations such as on the south -facing slopes, slopes on the north and those in between.
These findings would help to optimize PV system locations by ensuring that the installation uses From the light that is reflected by adjacent slopes, so that they can generate more electricity in the winter months.
Mödl explained that the data collected so far will be analyzed in the summer, compared to data from model calculations.
To date, Mödl has taken measurements around the middle of the day, on days when there is no cloud cover. But she emphasized that in order to draw good conclusions, data must be included under a series of conditions, which means that the project will continue again next winter.
Last year other SLF researchers Used drones To measure the depths of snow in an area where a solar park would be located.
Research by ETH Zurich last August investigated the Financial viability from Alpine PV projects in Switzerland.
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