Researchers at the Graubünden University of Applied Sciences (UAS) found that every kilowatt hour invested results in five kilowatt hours more solar power.

+ Will the sun continue to shine on renewable energy?

As many roofs in snowy regions such as canton Graubünden are covered in snow for months on end, producing electricity from solar systems in these regions is a challenge, according to the UAS.

Researchers in Davos therefore spent several years testing whether the snow could be efficiently removed by heating the photovoltaic modules using reverse current. Electricity is supplied to heat the modules and enable the snow to slide off in a targeted manner.

The project analysed the energy balance of reverse flow heating based on measurements in Davos in the winter of 2024/2025 and historical weather data. Further data will now be analysed this winter in order to evaluate the optimal heating time, among other things.

Translated from German by DeepL/mga

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at ...

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo certified by the Journalism Trust Initiati

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at ....