Railroads provide transportation for people and products around the world. In fact if you look at the top five countries with rail transportation, there are 600,000 kms (372,000 miles) of train tracks. That is long enough to wrap around the equator nearly 15 times.
This abundant existing infrastructure caught the attention of Swiss start-up Sun-Ways, who wondered if train tracks could pull double duty. They have designed solar panels that fit between the tracks and are removable to allow for track maintenance. The removable feature makes them different from other panels that are being tested in countries such as Japan, Germany and France.
A three year trial to understand the durability of the panels and learn any impacts to the trains has just begun. If the trial is successful and the solar panels are installed on the railroads in Switzerland, Sun-Ways estimates that the panels could generate approximately 2% of Switzerland’s electricity needs.
This is an innovative idea to help the transition to green energy. Imagine if the panels turned the over 600,000kms of rail networks into clean energy generators.
The results of the first year of the three year pilot are promising with no reported issues with safety (an initial concern was glare from solar panels impeding the rail drivers) or train operations.
In the first year, the 330 feet of solar-panel covered tracks produced 16,000 kWh of electricity, enough to supply 3-4 households. A modest amount but the opportunity grows to 300,000 households if Switzerland’s 3,300 miles of uncovered track has solar panels installed.
The pilot is scheduled to run until 2028.
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