Axpo, a Swiss based utility and energy firm, will officially develop a 2 MW PV power station at the wall of the Muttsee reservoir in Glarus, Switzerland.

The Muttsee reservoir is a part of the Linth-Limmen Power Stations’ hydropower and power storage complex, which consists of a total of five reservoirs and four hydropower plants. As a mountainous region, Switzerland derives up to 65% of its total power supply from hydropower.

According to Axpo, the Muttsee reservoir is very ideal for building PV power stations; it is known to have an abundant amount of sunshine and thin clean air, which can help to increase the overall solar radiation levels and boost power generation efficiency.

Axpo plans to install as many as 6,000 solar panels on the walls of the reservoir. The panels will cover a total of 10,000 square meters at angles of 77 degrees and 51 degrees, respectively, for the upper and lower sections. This will allow it to accommodate the curves of the walls and maximize the overall absorptions of the direct light and reflective light. In the future, the total annual output of the power plant could reach as high as 27 GWh.

Like Axpo, a number of the industry's other energy firms are also looking to take advantage of Switzerland’s high-altitude reservoirs. The Switzerland-based Romande Energie, for instance, has already installed various floating 448KW bifacial PV panels at the Lac des Toules reservoir which feature a higher amount of power generation efficiency than the ones from the lower altitudes. The company is planning to build several other large PV power stations at the reservoirs in high mountains by 2021.   

 (photo courtesy of Axpo)