Giorgia Burzachechi Switzerland is developing a pilot project to install solar panels between railway tracks in the canton of Neuchâtel. The removable photovoltaic system will produce energy for the local grid, without interrupting rail traffic.
Inspired by “solar roads” in China and France, though with mixed results-the French attempt ended in failure and was dismantled last summer-and the photovoltaic panel-covered bike lanes of the Netherlands, Switzerland is pushing the envelope: installing solar panels between railway tracks.
The project is an 18 kW photovoltaic installation to be installed between the tracks of a railway line in the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel. This will be the first removable pilot project to gain the approval of the Swiss Federal Office of Transport – FOT. The Swiss startup behind the project said it would start installation next year on a 100-meter section of railway 221 operated by transN, the public transportation company of the canton. The system will consist of 48 panels of 380 W each. The work will cost €621,800 ($665,000), and energy produced will be injected directly into the local grid.
The company Sun-Ways will install in collaboration with the local electricity provider Viteos and DG-Rail specialized in railway electrical systems.
In 2023, the FOT had already rejected the project due to a lack of information on the patent. But Sun-Ways did not give up: it required an independent opinion from the mechanical engineers of the Haute Ecole d’Ingénierie et de Gestion du Canton de Vaud. This is after further technical and safety reviews by Geste Engineering, a Swiss-based company that specializes in enormous railway engineering projects. Such a review was important because the pilot installation will be on an operational railway line. After all tests, it followed that the system met all requirements set by FOT.
This would confirm ambitions for more widely exploiting areas now unused, without interfering with either rail traffic or normal maintenance activities, should the pilot scheme meet expectations. The company also confirmed that, for longer stretches of the rail network, the installation of the modules could be done using a recently developed railway machine by Scheuchzer SA, expert in railway maintenance. According to Scheuchzer, up to 10,800 square feet of panels can be laid daily. The solar system is fully removable; renovation work on the railway itself may be done without service interruptions.
Finally, the system will not affect the aspect or the environment; for this reason, it will be an even greener railway.
Source: Sun-Ways
