🌟𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠!
🎓A former student collegue of mine Alena Frehner from the ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften had her master-thesis published. Life Cycle Assessment @ ZHAW Matthias Stucki
Congratulations again to you, your thesis is very impressive! ❣
𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘬𝘦𝘺 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦:
🏔️The 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡-𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞 𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐦 is in Switzerland, and combined two innovative solar technologies.
🏆𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒐𝒍?
The high-altitude location offers significant advantages:
⚡The system is capable of producing up to 50% more electricity in winter compared to lowland installations.
⛄️ This is due to factors such as increased solar radiation, lower temperatures, and a stronger albedo effect in mountainous regions.
💡𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡:
To understand how environmental friendly this new system is, the study examines the entire life cycle (LCA) of the panels (How panels are made, transported and eventually disposed):
🎯The LCA of this system reveals promising environmental performance:
💨For every 𝐤𝐖𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐞𝐬, 𝐢𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐬 94 𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐎2 𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭. s ( As a comparision coal-fired power plants emit approx. 820 grams of CO2-equivalent per kWh, while natural gas plants emit around 490 𝐠 𝐂𝐎2-𝐞𝐪/𝐤𝐖𝐡
The system uses 10,810 𝐤𝐖𝐡 of non-renewable energy for every kWp of solar panel capacity it installs. (𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘤𝘺𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘦𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵)
It takes 2.8 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 for the system to produce as much energy as was used to create it. -->This is called the 𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐲 𝐩𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞
🏔️What do you think about this innovation? Should there be more alpine floating pv installations?
#floatingpv #innovation #environmentalscience #lifecycle #cleanenergy #energytransition #greentech #FPV #sustainableenergy
1’810 meters above sea level, alpine reservoir, floating PV ⛰️☀️
Those are not 3 terms you’d necessarily expect to see in the same sentence, but you may have come across the world’s first alpine floating PV plant before, as it has caused quite a stir.
In the context of her master thesis, Alena Frehner conducted a Life Cycle Assessment of this pioneering high-altitude floating PV plant, and the study is now available as an open access article in the Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments Journal. 📰
With alpine and floating PV on the rise and gaining importance in the renewable energies market, this study gives insights into what the combination of both technologies might look like from an environmental perspective. 💡
👉 Definitely worth giving this study a read:
https://lnkd.in/ejthbJng
Romande Energie Maxime Ramstein René Itten Matthias Stucki
#FPV #FloatingPV #AlpinePV #LCA #LifeCycleThinking
Image: © Romande Energie
