Switzerland Turns Train Tracks Into Solar Power Plants
- Editor OGN Daily
- May 10
- 1 min read
The idea struck Joseph Scuderi one day while he was waiting for a train. Why not do something with the unused space between railroad tracks?
Five years later, Scuderi and his start-up Sun-Ways have placed solar panels on tracks in Buttes, a small village in western Switzerland, in order to test their innovative idea. “We installed solar panels as we would on the roof of a house,” Scuderi says at the unveiling of the project.
This is not the first time solar energy has been integrated into rail infrastructure. Projects in Germany, Italy, France and Japan are testing solar panels between the rails. However, the Swiss start-up is the first to have designed a removable system that can be placed on railway lines that are open to traffic.
By exploiting the vast unexploited surface along railways, Sun-Ways aims to “revolutionise photovoltaic energy production”.
Even though the panels are designed to stay in place while trains run, the ability to easily remove photovoltaic cells is important to allow maintenance or replacement work on the tracks. To keep the panels clean, a cylindrical brush can be placed on the end of trains.
Sun-Ways says the approximately 5,320 kilometres of the Swiss rail network - minus sections in tunnels or with little sunshine - could generate enough solar power per year to meet the demands of 300,000 households, or 2 percent of the electricity used in Switzerland.
