Anyone visiting the Grüental campus in Wädenswil since autumn 2025 encounters an unusual sight: rows of solar panels extend above a vegetable and arable farming area. The panels rotate slightly to track the movement of the sun. The installation measures 2,000 square metres (40 by 50 metres), comprises 216 solar modules and has a capacity of 151 kWp. It is expected to generate around 225,000 kWh of electricity annually, roughly equivalent to the yearly consumption of 45 detached single-family homes.
Agrivoltaics on the Grüental campus
Mareike Jäger
Agri-PV facility project leader, Head of the Regenerative Agricultural Systems research group
“With this project, we are aiming to demonstrate that both food and renewable energy can be produced on the same piece of land.”
Two uses, one space
Agrivoltaics combines food production and electricity generation on the same land: two objectives that would otherwise often compete for space. The supporting structure was built by the French company REM TEC. As a foreign general contractor, the company first had to familiarise itself with Swiss conditions. The ground in Wädenswil is rocky, and the structure was ultimately anchored using steel bolts measuring between three and five metres in length.
The support structure also changed farming practices: since the land can no longer be cultivated right up to the very edge, extensive margin zones have emerged that have been deliberately enhanced to support biodiversity. For agriculture, the system creates an additional source of value generation on the same area of land. Combined with electrically powered machinery, farms could also become less reliant on fossil fuels.
Ten years from idea to opening
The concept originated roughly a decade ago within the Renewable Energies research group at the ZHAW Institute of Natural Resource Sciences, part of the School of Life Sciences and Facility Management. In 2020, a study funded by the Federal Office for Agriculture examined where and under what conditions agrivoltaics is actually viable in Switzerland. Several more years passed before planning permission was granted within a protected agricultural zone and a general contractor was selected.
The opening ceremony on 24 October 2025 was attended by Silvia Steiner, Director of Education, Regula Jöhl, President of the ZHAW, and numerous guests from the agriculture, energy, research and public administration sectors. In her presentation, Mareike Jäger, Head of the Regenerative Agricultural Systems research group, described the installation as a pioneering project: According to her, Switzerland has not yet had an agrivoltaic installation above arable crops, despite a ZHAW study from 2024 indicating that this is precisely where the greatest potential lies.
What the facility is meant to illustrate
The central research question is whether crop yields, water consumption and electricity generation can genuinely be reconciled. Initial international studies suggest that under dry conditions, PV modules may even increase the yields of crops growing underneath while simultaneously reducing water consumption.
