High in the Swiss Alps, on a concrete dam wall more than 8,000 feet above the sea, someone bolted thousands of solar panels to a place almost no one thought was worth it.
For years the assumption was simple, that solar belongs low and warm, on sunny roofs and flat fields, not up in the freezing thin air of the mountains.
Most solar plants sit where life is easy, near towns and roads and mild weather.
Turning that idea on its head is a small plant clinging to a dam most people will never see.
And what it does in the dead of winter is the part that changed everything. The panels bolted to a wall in the sky
The place is the Muttsee dam, in the canton of Glarus, about an hour from Zurich.
At around 2,500 meters, it sits at the highest reservoir in Europe, behind the longest dam wall in Switzerland.
Along more than a kilometer of that wall, crews fixed roughly 5,000 solar panels, a plant named AlpinSolar.
The wall curves to the south and catches sun from morning to night, and its steep face lets the snow slide off on its own.
The dam cannot be reached by road, so every part had to be flown in by helicopter.
Building anything at that height, in that cold, was a serious feat of engineering.
Snow and storms batter the site for much of the year.
Running since 2022, it makes about 3.3 million kilowatt hours a year, enough for around 700 homes.
And now we have to start long term planning, yay. Really it isn't too hard, we'll be consolidating all the investments that I can to Chas Schwab through my broker, one that my mom recommended and has done me well so far. I do know I'll have to sell at least some of my Morgan Stanley holdings as the MS At Work account is Schroedinger's account, it seems to be both closed and not closed at the same time, and transfers aren't an option. We also have a standard MS account and an E*trade (also Morgan Stanley) account from the estate, hopefully those'll transfer.
The more interesting direction is moving my Money Management savings account at my credit union to Schwab, we'll be making it a Money Market mutual fun, and it'll go from 2.3% interest rate which is fairly impressive to a 3.9% rate. This will require some changes in how I manage my money, but that's already done, mortgage and the home improvement loan money is being dumped into the share savings account which only has a .25% interest rate, but its not like that money was sitting in the Money Management to earn any real interest. The new account will handle quarterly and annual bills, my tax payments, property tax and home owner's insurance. Initially I'll also be dropping $50 a month into the account, but that might grow once we get the utility bills updated.
Update? Yep, I don't think I shared this here, but this is what I spent last year on electricity…
I've no idea what was going on with the June-July period last year, but this year's looks like this…
Yeah, we're seeing a big difference, and if last year wasn't a fluke, they'll have to change my budget billing down prolly by a notable amount, enough for me to increase the deposit. With the compound interest I think that'll pay off at least one of my tax payments, possibly two of them which is obviously quite nice.
Beyond that, there likely won't be too many investment changes for the next six years until I can touch the IRAs and maybe consolidate them? Certainly be easier to manage if'n I've only one fund, right now I have like 3 or 4. Oh, and changes in stock investments, I'm thinking ABB, and I'd like to get Slate and Alpatronics, but those aren't publicly traded, Slate might be at some time, but Alpatronics is unlikely. Not sure if'n there's anyone else I want to invest in.
Legal systems have always struggled to keep up with rapid technological change, and things are no different in the world of generative AI. There are still relatively few rulings on the new issues t…
And there you have it. It's not an oops, "AI" had a booboo. It's misinformation, or a lie as I like to call it. It's your "AI", you're responsible for it.
The folks at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) have spent decades demonizing technology (and speech) they don’t understand, so it seems particularly ironic that they’re…
So, switched computers, after breaking into Vik's Ace Magic Windows install to see if'n there was any important files on it (nada), I installed Mint DE 7 on it, and am now running it as my main computer. I was thinking that it wouldn't work out, it only has an N100 processor, but whereas the ThinkCentre with its AMD processor would frequently spin up the fans as it struggled when I ran videos, no such problem here. For such a tiny little computer, it runs good, really the only problem is the lack of ports… Or rather weird selection, one audio out, two Ethernet, three USB and three HDMI. Yeah, that's it, I'm using one of my hubs with it, which doesn't run as hot plugged into this computer, but that only gives me a total of five ports, I'd like more, anyone have a recommendation for a hub that has at least five ports and uses the old square USB? I do have an adapter if needed.
Any how, whereas the last computer was on the network as ThunkCentre, this one is AceAce Baby, because I don't do subtle.
💬 8 🔁 513 ❤️ 841 · This is a spot from an italian estate agency (we are governed by the right-wing party)
The woman says "Ridiculous..."
If you want to spread it elsewhere, here's the official…
Genuinely curious about this, I have a few followers and a few mutuals that are on #diaspora , and at this point I have to ask why?
Genuine question, even six months ago, I wouldn't've asked, I mean Diaspora is nice, I really like it, even if'n its not got AP connectivity, but with new things like Wafrn and Loops, especially Loops, it seems like the lack of AP connectivity means being left behind and losing out these days.
We all probably have our own reasons. But by elimination diaspora works for me. The Meta world is totally unacceptable to me because the owner has no morals. There are probably some appealing discussion groups there, but i'll never login again.
Microblogging, Mastodon and Bluesky, just are too choppy, too many snippets out of context to spend much time with. Xitter, ha, what a dumpster fire. Tumblr, eh, not for me. What's left? I don't know about Wafrn and loops.
@Coaster Nods, "AP is Mastodon, Loops, Peertube, the Fediverse in general. Wafrn is the Fediverse answer to Tumblr, Loops is the Fediverse answer to TikTok. As to Tumblr, I kinda like it, but you definitely need to find the right group, which prolly took me something like 5 years, but its been long enough that I don't remember."
Yes but then the backlog builds up so fast that there's no point trawling though it. There's a certain frequency of posting beyond which it's impossible to keep up.
@Khurram Wadee Oh that is so very, very true, I'm at the point where I have personal rules for how much of the timelines I look at, and I don't sweat missing stuff, its not like in real life that I can keep up with everything happening, no reason online should be different, for those things are important, I'll put them on a list, or chase them down individually, the rest, I see what I see.
@Andrew Pam Interesting, what's that running? I use this place as a blog, but haven't decided on its future as I have a love-hate relationship with #friendica , on one hand it has post scheduling and is AP and Diaspora compatible, unlimited length posts and inline images, on the other hand, the design is god awful, settings are a complete mess, and the interface is really cluttered.
Mark Wollschlager
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