Solar on the right track

News | April 27, 2025

By Wisse Hettinga

You can put them on your roof, in a field, or against a wall – why not put solar cells on a rail track?

That is exactly what the Suisse company Sun-Ways is doing. They bring together unused land-space and the close proximity of the power grid by placing solar cells between the railtrack. The first pilot is in the canton of Neuchâtel where they use 100 meters of operational railway. The pilot is getting a lot of attention from various countries: pilot projects are taking shape with the SNCF in France, but also in Spain, Romania and South Korea, and discussions are already underway with potential partners in China, Thailand, Australia and the United States.

The track has 48 cells of 380W each, a total of 100m2. The estimated production is 16,000 kWh/year. The pilot will also focus on the durability of this solution. Some critics are afraid of mechanical damage by the heavy trains passing over, there is dust, dirt and vandalism. All these questions will need to be addressed in the pilot period.

You may ask why? The website of Sun-ways provides some answers:

The space between the rails is large enough to accommodate standard-sized photovoltaic panels without hindering train traffic, and the sleepers on which the photovoltaic panels rest have no other function than to ensure a regular spacing of the rails.
The installation is done mechanically using a special train and the installation of a 1000 m2 (1 km) solar power plant takes only a few hours.
The electricity produced by PV can be injected directly into the catenaries used for train traction (in the near future) or into the public electricity grid. Swiss railway networks could produce 1 TWh of electricity from solar per year, or 30% of the consumption of all public transport companies in Switzerland.
No visual or environmental impact and quick and cost-effective implementation.