A successful start:

Cable car travels up the Zwölferhorn with solar power

The large PV modules were installed on the south side below the summit.

(Bild: Scharinger Daniel/Daniel Scharinger)

From now on, cable car passengers from St. Gilgen can reach the Zwölferhorn using solar power. The local mountain of the Wolfgangsee community, which is around 1500 meters high, was fitted with photovoltaic modules for this purpose.

Everything went quickly with this construction. The first discussions took place 18 months ago. On Tuesday, the Zwölferhorn cable car, which is now powered by solar energy, was officially put into operation. The PV modules installed at the summit of the mountain, which is around 1500 meters high, supply much more electricity than the cable car consumes.

This in turn pleases the mayor of St. Gilgen. "Normally, the municipality always has to pay somewhere. Here, our citizens benefit from a project," says Otto Kloiber about the surplus electricity that the municipality intends to purchase from the cable car company from the fall.

Operators speak of a unique project
There have been concerns from environmentalists, but he does not believe these are justified, said Kloiber at the press conference on Tuesday. The operators are of the same opinion. The building was constructed on steel piles that protrude two and a half meters into the ground. Photovoltaic modules were installed on them - not visible from Lake Wolfgangsee, as the operators emphasize. "There is no other system like this in the world that operates a cable car at 1,500 meters above sea level," says Arthur Moser, Managing Director of Zwölferhorn Seilbahn Gesellschaft.