2023-09-23 20:35:42
What if covering agricultural roads with solar panels allowed Switzerland to achieve energy independence? This somewhat crazy initiative from an energy engineer was relayed to Parliament and the Federal Council must clarify the situation this year.
It was on the three kilometers of agricultural road that separate his house from his work that Marc Muller, an energy engineer, had an idea that might well contribute to Switzerland’s energy independence. “These are surfaces that are already taken from nature. So these are already impermeable surfaces and we might produce energy here by putting solar panels on the roads,” he imagines in the 7:30 p.m.
According to him, the potential is enormous, to the point of producing as much energy as with all the photovoltaic installation projects planned in the mountains.
“In Switzerland, there are 65,000 kilometers of small paths and agricultural roads that might easily be equipped with solar coverage. If we covered only 3% of these roads, we might produce 2 terawatt hours (TWh), which is almost enough to cover all the energy needs of Swiss agriculture,” he explains.
The position of the Federal Council expected this year
For the initiators, everything might go very quickly if the infrastructure benefits farmers. The Federal Council should clarify the situation once more this year.
“The specificity of the agricultural zone is that we can only build infrastructure if they are useful to agriculture and the aim of my intervention is to make the Federal Council say that this can be in the interest of agriculture to produce indigenous electricity on site along the axes already used”, explains Vaud national councilor Raphaël Mahaim (Green).
An idea “far from stupid”
On the side of farmers, the initiative may be attractive. “It’s difficult to imagine a roof over several kilometers in the middle of the fields, but the idea is far from stupid,” said Julien Duc, a farmer in Lully (VD).
The project, however, raises certain questions: “There are lots of points that we will have to observe in terms of our work, in practice, such as the size of the vehicles, but also to see how it fits into the landscape.”
So many questions that the initiators want to answer as quickly as possible. Six pilot projects might soon see the light of day in French-speaking Switzerland.
TV topics: Julien von Roten and Cédric Jordan
Web adaptation: Jérémie Favre
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