For the 10th anniversary of the UN Paris Climate Change Agreement, on Dec 12, 2025, Solar Butterfly want to present 1000 firsthand ingenious ideas, projects and companies that work on solutions to climate change. Solar Butterfly visited our factory during our Autarky Day. Our colleague Lucien Debons, took part in the journey between Norway and Sweden.
Fourteen years ago, Louis Palmer became the first man to circumnavigate the Earth in a fully solar-powered vehicle. This is not the first time he has done this, which is why he has developed, together with the HES-SO in Lucerne, the first mobile home pulled by a Tesla Model X that is 100% recharged with solar energy generated by the solar panel located on the trailer that the Tesla is towing.
Join them on a four-year journey across six continents and 90 countries and find more information about their mission in https://solarbutterfly.org
Meet the Solar Butterfly
A tiny mobile house powered by solar energy. The Solar Butterfly is equipped with a kitchen, toilet, shower, running water, A/C and up to 6 beds. This mobile house has an eye-catching design and turns into a butterfly at the push of a button. This allows for a large wingspan to collect more energy from the sun. It has been designed and built by Swiss universities and engineers.
Studer, technical partner of the Solar Butterfly with its latest energy manager, the next3
“For the Solar Butterfly team, it was an obvious choice to integrate our equipment into the Solar Butterfly, given its ergonomics, its weight/power ratio, and its flexibility of integration,”
The integration of this device provides the Solar Butterfly team with total energy autonomy, supplying the various electrical appliances in the habitat (audiovisual equipment, kitchen, lamps, etc.), charging the storage batteries, and also allowing the electric car to be recharged during the 200 km travelled daily. Below you can find an explanation in French about the energy concept of this vehicle.
The Solar Butterfly at Studer facilities for the Autarky day
On 9 June 2022, more than 120 experts from the electrical and photovoltaic sectors in French-speaking Switzerland meet on our company headquarters in Sion (Switzerland) for the official launch of our new energy manager, next3. On this occasion, we received a visit from the Solar Butterfly, the first mobile home to travel around the world, powered by solar energy thanks to the next3 equipment integrated into the heart of the vehicle.
From Tromsø in Norway to Stockholm in Sweden, we had a spy in the hearth of the Solar Butterfly operations
Our colleague Lucien Debons took part in the Solar Butterfly journey between 9 and 19 August. While helping the team to become more familiar with the next3 and studer technology, he took advantage to visit together with the rest of the team various interesting projects helping to fight against the climate change and exploring synergies with our battery-based power electronics.
The energy core of the Solar Butterfly returns after more than 25,000 km to our factory for a check-up before leaving again for his world tour
At the beginning of 2023 the Solar Butterfly stopped at our factory in Sion to make a check-up of the next3 and the batteries powering the mobile house. The inverter was directly taken in charge by our service team, who made a full check. Our engineers were impressed that the next3 hybrid inverter showed no damage and looked almost new despite the extensive travel. This swissmade machine is more robust than any other solar equipment!
Following this, we tested the operation of the inverter, the charger, the injector and solar as well as the battery. The test was successfully completed. The device was updated with the latest software version 1.1.0.0. The system will be reinstalled in the Solar Butterfly ready to continue the rest of their world tour.
We would like to thank the Solar Butterfly team and Louis Palmer for their visit and the good collaboration. We wish the best on their mission and are looking forward to following their adventure.
More information about the Solar Butterfly trip on their website and social media.
Date:
Components:
- 80 m² of solar panels on it 40 m² of external solar panels
- 1x 48V battery
- 1x next3 rack 19″ smart inverter/charger with integrated solar
- 1x Tesla Model X
The customer:
Date:
January 16, 2023
Components:
- 80 m² of solar panels on it 40 m² of external solar panels
- 1x 48V battery
- 1x next3 rack 19″ smart inverter/charger with integrated solar
- 1x Tesla Model X
The customer: