The Monte Rosa Hut

The Monte Rossa hut, solar and thermal panels

The Monte Rosa Hut, also known as the Bétemps Hut, is a mountain hut owned by the Swiss Alpine Club and located at an altitude of 2,882 m in the canton of Valais. It is situated at the foot of the mountain from which it gets its name. It overlooks the Gorner Glacier and offers a magnificent view of the majestic Matterhorn.

The old hut

The first hut was built in 1895 in wood with the help of the engineer François Bétemps, who gave the cabin its first name. In 1918 it was expanded, increasing the number of beds from 20 to 45. In 1929 the hut was donated to the Monte-Rosa section, and since then it has taken its name. In 1940 a new building was constructed with a capacity of 86 places and was enlarged in 1972, doubling its capacity, allowing it to host up to 160 beds in 1984.

The new self-sufficient hut

After all these enlargements, a whole new concept for the Monte Rosa hut was built in 2009 with a capacity of 120 places. It is the result of a common project between the Monte Rosa section, the Swiss Alpine Club and the ETH Zurich. The new building is clad with aluminium plates that make it look like a rock crystal. The construction of this building used completely new techniques and opened up new perspectives in terms of building energy management. It is probably the most complex timber construction ever built in Switzerland, according to the Monte-Rosa section.

Along with thermal solar collectors, a photovoltaic system integrated in the hut’s southern facade ensures a high degree of energy self-sufficiency and a reliable energy supply.

The melted snow is piped to a rock cave to be used as drinking water. A micro-filter installation cleans the wastewater, which is reused for toilet flushing. The software program developed at the ETH Zürich controls the entire system remotely.

The system

It is composed of three xth 8000-48 providing one phase of power for the hut. Four variostring vs70 solar charge controllers were added in September 2022 to replace the old ones. A combined heat and power (CHP) generator can bridge the energy gap when needed and can also produce hot water.

From 8.6 tons of lead batteries to 2.7 tons of lithium batteries

The energy flow analysis revealed that the lead batteries used since the opening of the hut would soon reach the end of their life. Siemens was therefore commissioned to design the entire solution and replace the 48 lead-acid batteries in the technical room with 14 lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries with a total capacity of 215 kWh.

As the access to the hut could not be done by road, the regional airline Air Zermatt was responsible for transporting the 8.6 tonnes of weight of the old batteries and heliporting the 2.7 tonnes of lithium batteries to the refugee.

In order to help with the installation of the new batteries we sent one of our technicians to the site. The installation was fully operational in only two weeks.

Thanks to this new solution, the autonomy of the hut can be increased, and even reduce the use of the generator while ensuring a safe, efficient, and sustainable energy supply, only by replacing the batteries. This is what makes the real difference, the adapting of Studer technology over time even under the most adverse conditions.

The old hut

The new self-sufficient hut

The system

From 8.6 tons of lead batteries to 2.7 tons of lithium batteries

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