Solar panels
The longest road bridge in Switzerland will produce green electricity
The Yverdon motorway viaduct is at the center of the will of the Federal Road Office to use its infrastructure to increase its energy production.
Thanks to a collaboration with the Federal Road Office, the subsidiary of the AMAG Helion Energy group installs more than 2,400 solar panels along the A5 viaduct which bypass Yverdon.
Yvain Genevay
- The Federal Roads Office installs 2423 solar panels on the Yverdon viaduct.
- The 3.5 million franc project will produce electricity for 400 households.
- The photovoltaic installation extends throughout the 3.1 kilometers of the motorway bridge.
- The energy produced will be injected into the Yverdonnois municipal network.
The Federal Roads Office (OFROU) had clearly displayed in 2021 his intention to use its infrastructure to produce energy. “Green” energy, like its motorway panels, it goes without saying. Four years later, the plan was carried out: 41 projects were put into service and 62 are either funded or in progress. This is the case of the one in the realization phase on the side of Yverdon-les-Bains.
The latter is even one of the flagship projects of the Federal Administration, which thus invests 3.5 million francs for this infrastructure. Built at this very moment by the Soleur company Helion, which won this market against four competitors, it takes place along the motorway viaduct which bypasses the North Vaudois chief town and connects the A1 to A5 motorways.
To achieve the objective that he set out to produce 35 gigawatt hours (GWH) by 2030, l’o offer account first on The many anti -grip walls that he intends to line with photovoltaic panels. A support of which he estimates the electric potential at 100 GWh.
First private project in Switzerland
At the end of 2023, after having validated the installation of solar panels along the highways and on the rest areas, it launched a public call for tenders for 350 of these antibred walls.
From this desire, two photovoltaic installations will be functional within a few weeks on the A15, near Wangen-Brüttisellen (ZH). It will simply be the first two private solar power plants built as part of the OFRou program to enhance spaces that can be used on motorways.
Their manufacturer has come up against a technical challenge: to avoid at all costs that their reverberation dazzles the drivers. A parameter at least restrictive from which the Yverdonnois project has not escaped, even if it does not take support on noise walls directly exposed to the sight of motorists.
After being assembled at the foot of the viaduct, the panels were mounted using a gross truck at the height of the parapet on which they are then laid.
Yvain Genevay
In the North of Vaud, Helion Lays its panels on the outside of the country’s longest road bridge. “When we assured this viaduct, we added a second battery of tubes throughout its 3.15 kilometers that we had to cover. It appeared to us to do so using photovoltaic panels rather than simple protective sheets, “explains Laurent Brugger, project manager at Ofrou.
Larger solar panels
But during the first test, carried out a few months ago, it appeared that the top of the panels exceeded the parapet of about twenty centimeters, creating a risk of reverberation. “Their resizing has taken a little time and generated a slight delay in the realization of the project,” says Laurent Brugger.
You have to understand that these panels – their pose started last May and must end before the end of the year – are not really the same as those that are fixed on the roof of individual villas. “They measure 2.16 m by 1.13 and are a little larger than the average,” notes Antoine Choux, photovoltaic project manager at Helion.
It was a question of using as much as possible the potential offered by the length of the motorway viaduct ideally oriented west-east, while taking into account a request for OFROU. In order to facilitate administrative procedures, the latter has indeed required that their grip will prevent beyond its territory.
Taking into account their inclination – on which their sun exposure obviously depend and therefore their energy production -, they must not expand more than 2 meters the template of the viaduct.
Energy for 400 households
In total, 2423 panels representing 5,400 m² of surface will be treated from the ground, where they are assembled on a stainless steel structure as the site progresses. “With the exception of the overhang of the SBB track and the rivers that the viaduct spans, the entire length of the bridge is used,” said René Silva, Helion co -director in French -speaking Switzerland.
Ultimately, the installation must produce just over 1 GWh per year. Or what to cover the electricity consumption of 400 households of four people. “Wherever we can, we will directly consume all or part of the energy that we will produce,” emphasizes Olivier Floc’hic, information and communication manager of OFROU. In this case, this is not the case, because the Pomy tunnel, which is our nearest infrastructure, is still too far from the viaduct. Electricity is therefore injected into the Yverdonnois municipal network. ”
The rail has already put itself in solar panels
The climate issue tickles the imagination. Long confined to the roofs of buildings only, solar panels find more and more new supports, sometimes unusual.
This is the case of the installation set up this spring in Val-de-Travers (ne). On April 24, the Vaudois companies Scheuchzer (Bussigny) and Sun-Ways (shields) as well as the Neuchâtel transport company Transn thus inaugurated a small photovoltaic solar power plant placed in Buttes … between the rail rails of the R21 line.
The 48 panels that stretch over a hundred meters are part of a pilot project which has three years to prove itself. Its particularity lies in the removable side of the installation. A first in Switzerland on a railway.
On the day of the public demonstration, it was only about twenty minutes at the Scheuchzer special machine to deposit ten linear meters of panels.
Switzerland has approximately 5000 kilometers of tracks. If their spacing was entirely covered with panels, the rail could “produce” 1 terawatt hour (1 billion kilowatt hours) of electricity annually. Either what to cover almost a third of the energy consumption of public transport.
It is both a lot and little with regard to the potential to exploit facades and roofs for renewable energy, respectively 18 and 55 times greater.
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