Mont-Soleil

The Mont-Soleil solar power plant in the Bernese Jura went into operation in February 1992, the largest photovoltaic installation in Europe at the time. The power plant has a nominal capacity of 560 kilowatt peak and feeds some 550 megawatt hours of electricity into the grid each year. The power plant covers the annual energy consumption of approximately 120 households.

The Bernese Jura cantonal governor's office issued the building permit for the expansion of the solar power plant (MontSol) in mid-March 2025. This decision enables the urgently needed expansion of renewable electricity production with a high winter share and is in harmony with agriculture, nature and the region.

Visualization of the MontSol solar project © BKW

Site (municipality/ies)	Saint-Imier BE
Partners	BKW, stake: 42.5% Société des Forces Electriques de La Goule SA, stake: 42.5% AEW Energie AG, stake: 15%
Status	Approval by Bourgeoisie de Saint-Imier: March 1, 2024 Submission of building permit application: March 15, 2024 Approved by popular vote: June 9, 2024 Publication: June 14, 2024 - August 15, 2024 Issue of the building permit: March 13, 2025
Capacity	8 megawatt peak (MWp)
Annual output	11 gigawatt hours (GWh)
Specific winter yield (October to March)	545 kilowatt hours/kilowatt peak (kWh/kWp)
Required area	14 hectares (ha)
Number of solar panels	around 400
Number of solar modules	around 20,000

MontSol ground-mounted solar plant

Thanks to the MontSol ground-mounted solar plant, important winter electricity can be produced in future - at a time of year when Switzerland is dependent on additional electricity production.

Mont-Soleil solar power plant

Did you know that the installation is used for research purposes as well as electricity production? And that it is the site of “pv-bench”, an international pilot project for comparing PV modules?