Energy Further opposition to the Gondosolar solar project in Valais
The Fondation Franz Weber and its sister organization Helvetia Nostra have lodged a complaint with the canton of Valais against the planned alpine photovoltaic plant in Gondo. The environmental organizations criticize that the project threatens a valuable alpine ecosystem.
03.04.2025, 17:03
SDA
They submitted the complaint to the Valais State Council on Wednesday, the two foundations announced on Thursday. As part of this complaint, Helvetia Nostra is requesting a judicial expert opinion.
Helvetia Nostra complains that key aspects of nature and landscape conservation have not been taken into account in the project. In addition to environmental damage, it has considerable technical and procedural shortcomings. For example, no variant study was carried out.
In Helvetia Nostra's opinion, there are other locations in the region or in the canton that would be more suitable. These locations would be connected to existing infrastructure. Some of them are already built on and, above all, would have significantly less impact on animals and plants.
Furthermore, the project had not been fully developed. In particular, the environmental impact assessment remained incomplete.
Green light for construction
The cantonal building commission granted planning permission for the project just under a month ago. At the same time, the Federal Office of Energy is conducting a procedure to approve the electrical infrastructure required for the project. The decision on this is still pending. Helvetia Nostra has also already lodged an objection to this part, as the organization also announced.
The plant with around 2,200 solar trees is to be built above Gondo at an altitude of over 2,000 meters on an area of 17.4 hectares. According to the project promoters, it will produce an average of around 22.1 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity per year. That is enough for almost 5000 four-person households with an annual consumption of 4500 kilowatt hours.
