Ski Lift Running on Solar Power

I found another article here http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=890 That states

"Tenna is a small, quiet village in Switzerland with 109 inhabitants; but has become big news after announcing a rather unique project - a ski-lift powered by solar energy; the second in the world.

The solar panels for the Tenna project will be placed on top of the drag lift itself and will be adjustable in order to protect them from buildup of snow and to better track the sun, providing increased electricity production."

Thanks Mekka,

I found another (translated) acccount on here:

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nevasport.com%2Fnoticias%2Fd%2F19569%2Fun-telesqui-que-funciona-solo-con-energia-solar&sl=auto&tl=en

I think I am not the only person to be confused. This account says that the processing capacity of all the solar panels is 90.000 Kw/h which gives enough energy for 3 lifts (doesn't say what sort of lift) to move consuming 22.000 Kw/h on average. There is a big difference between a full stop and a comma when it comes to numerical magnitude!

Natives.co.uk says it is a chair lift:
First there was a solar-powered rope tow in Westendorf, Austria in 2008, now solar power has been incorporated into a chairlift in Tenna, Switzerland - and manufacturers claim the panels will geneate enough electricity even in overcast conditions...

Edit
I have found the original German article and video about it, but unfortunately I don't understand any German! It does show you how the panels tip over though.

http://videoportal.sf.tv/video?id=ec1fa3cc-e4ec-4783-b56b-05d1da6af337

Second edit
I phoned the editor of natives.co.uk and she phoned the resort at Tenna, and yes it is a drag lift.

Ally

There is a big difference between 5kw and 5kwh.
The first is the effect used, and if something uses 5kw and stays turned on for 1 hour it becomes 5kwh. And if it stays on for 4000 hours it becomes 20 000kwh. I left the thousand seperator blank intentionally, because this is one of many differences between US and EU.

And you can't use a solarpanel without connection to the grid to run a commercial lift. Think about when the lift stops, there will be power overrun, and on cloudy days, there will be to little power.

Just my 2 EUROcent

Second edit
I phoned the editor of natives.co.uk and she phoned the resort at Tenna, and yes it is a drag lift.

Wow

Pablo Escobar wrote:

Second edit
I phoned the editor of natives.co.uk and she phoned the resort at Tenna, and yes it is a drag lift.

Wow

Pablo,
You should know me well enough by now to know that I don't stop until I have the answer to whatever it is that is currently bugging me

And thanks to my phone call the editor of natives.co.uk has corrected their web article on this ski lift so that it now says:

First there was a solar-powered rope tow in Westendorf, Austria in 2008, now solar power has been incorporated into a T-bar in Tenna, Switzerland - and manufacturers claim the panels will geneate enough electricity even in overcast conditions...

But I still haven't really cleared up the issue of how much electricity the cells generate, or how much the T-bar uses. I am hoping that a J2skier fluent in German will watch that video and tell me what it says.

Ally

If you are really that bothered just email lift manufacturers, contact details here,

http://www.leitner-poma.com/

and here,

http://www.doppelmayr.com/

For the solar panels use Google and contact manufacturers to find out how much their cells produce at that altitude.

Thanks Pablo,
That's very kind of you

Ally

Surly with global warming the lifts will work fine but we will be grass skiing