Swiss start-up Sun-Ways has permission to trial the first removable rail track solar panels. But there is opposition to the project on safety grounds
A Swiss start-up is trialling a new way of harnessing the power of the sun – solar panels on railway tracks.
The removable PV system will be tested on a track in the western canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, for three years from spring 2025.
The PV panels, which will be rolled out like carpet in between the tracks, will be removable.
500,000 miles of solar tracks?
While the initial project is relatively small, Sun-Ways sees the idea as one to roll out across the globe.
“There are over a million kilometres of railway lines in the world,” Sun-Ways co-founder Baptiste Danichert said last year. “We believe that 50 per cent of the world’s railways could be equipped with our system.”
It is the latest innovative approach to solar panel installation, with developers looking at other unusual surfaces in recent years – including roadsides, reservoirs and farms.
At the same time, other companies are experimenting with adding PV elements to railway sleepers.
Sun-Ways, with the help of EPFL, the Swiss federal technology institute in Lausanne, is the first to patent a removable system.
“This will be the first time that solar panels will be installed on a railway track with trains that pass over them,” Sun-Ways CEO Joseph Scuderi said.
The removable innovation is a crucial one since railway tracks need to be cleared from time to time for essential maintenance work.
Read more: sustainabilitymag
