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Solar rail could become common in Europe after successful trial in Switzerland
- ben_w 3mo agoAlways nice when something that I suggest in a random comment only to get a dismissive reply, turns out to be an idea worth persuing all along.
- Cpoll 3mo ago> idea worth persuing Remains to be seen, considering how much snake oil there is in the solar market (but to be fair, this makes more sense than solar roads). A news article summary of a press release isn't proof of much.
- therealpygon 3mo agoBeing right about things you have no control over is a bit like being right about your favorite flavor of jelly.
- shermantanktop 3mo agoCan you be wrong about your favorite flavor of jelly?
- ben_w 3mo agoOf course. I have tried entrepreneurial stuff twice before, in my 20s, though without much success. Having ideas good enough to get investors interested is a sign that perhaps I should have another go at it.
- marysol5 3mo agoHaving ideas that you got interest in, developed the product, built out the website. And then never finished with. Which has since become a massive success for other people cries
- baybal2 3mo ago[dead]
- kingstnap 3mo agoThese are not ideas worth pursuing from an engineering standpoints. It doesn't make any sense compared to just doing the cheap and proven at scale thing of just placing them in normal fields. But I will agree that the idea has proven marketing merit. This is a class of truly top tier snake oil. The solar roadways people continue to go unbelievably far on almost the same grift.
- rcxdude 3mo agoThis proves it is an idea worth selling to some people. Not the same thing. (to me it seems especially nuts because there's plenty of space to the side of most railways!)
- mrmanner 3mo agoTrains AND solar power. Awesome.
- pepperoni_pizza 3mo agoToday we sail On the Solar Rail For there's much we just don't know So farewell with a kiss Then it's fast for the mist Till we're sleeping in the cold below
- Terr_ 3mo agoCold: the metal boxes going Hard: the tracks on which we roam Panels when the dark's not coming Feel the weight of what we tow
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- Aboutplants 3mo agoWhat are the economics of this? Cost to install vs other available options? Durability will certainly be an issue I’m sure. Genuinely curious and not because I think it’s a bad idea. I want solar on all underutilized areas, I just prefer low hanging fruit from a cost perspective at the current time.
- datadrivenangel 3mo agoSeems likely that safe access for maintenance makes this unappealing economically. Likely easier to have wider rail right of way and then put a panel farm on the side.
- tryagainian 3mo agoWith the added benefit of being able to mount the tracks at an angle, and the added disadvantage of occupying area near the tracks that is occasionally used for maintenance equipment. And getting approval to widen the right of way, where it’s even physically possible, and issues around flora suppression.
- LaurensBER 3mo agoI imagine that the cost to install is fairly low since train tracks require regular monitoring and maintenance so it's fairly cheap to add the installation and maintenance on top of the existing schedule. The manufacturer claims that durability should not be an issue. Time will tell.
- tryagainian 3mo agoPlacing a cover over the area between the tracks makes it much more difficult to inspect the ties (sleepers) and ballast.
- inglor_cz 3mo agoYes, worsened inspection is a non-trivial problem. Very high quality sleepers (I wouldn't expect any other kind in Switzerland) mitigate this, but copying such approach in other countries could spell trouble.
- tryagainian 3mo ago[flagged]
- comrade1234 3mo agoAn ETH study says no. https://lenews.ch/2026/07/04/new-nuclear-plants-a-difficult-option-for-switzerland/ https://lenews.ch/2026/07/04/new-nuclear-plants-a-difficult-...
- golemotron 3mo ago[flagged]
- Ma8ee 3mo agoApparently it is so slow and expensive to build nuclear power so no commercial entities are interested without extreme government subsidies and guarantees.
- kuerbel 3mo agoBetter article with video: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/emissions-reduction/solar-energy-from-railways-shows-first-positive-results-in-switzerland/91628036 https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/emissions-reduction/solar-energ...
- 3eb7988a1663 3mo agoThat video is good - seeing the train-car dropping the panels into place makes it clear that you have some immediate labor savings on the initial deployment. Not sure if the post-installation labor was significant or could be automated away. Still not sold on the idea. For something with a 20+ year life span, the initial deployment effort seems kind of irrelevant and should be better located somewhere that does not require ongoing activity. Train ballast requires replacement every N years which is going to require ripping up all of those panels.
- Aurornis 3mo ago> seeing the train-car dropping the panels into place makes it clear that you have some immediate labor savings on the initial deployment. Dropping panels in place is not the hard part. Getting all of that electricity back to a connection point is one of the many problems created by this idea. Putting panels in a multiple kilometer long end-to-end row is very inefficient compared to rectangular layouts that can be clustered around connection points.
- bee_rider 3mo agoIt makes more sense than the road, because at least the train isn’t driving directly on the thing. I wonder if the power could be delivered directly to the train. Although the only savings really would be transmission costs, not sure how big of a deal that is…
- JumpCrisscross 3mo ago> at least the train isn’t driving directly on the thing It’s just kicking up dust and dripping lubricant onto it. Maybe this makes sense. I’m deeply sceptical. Especially when you could just be putting vertical panels to the sides.
- Epa095 3mo agoInitially, he planned to remove dust from the surface of the photovoltaic cells using a cylindrical brush mounted on the rear of a train. “However, we realised that each time a train passes, it creates an airflow that sweeps away all the dust,” he said. https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/emissions-reduction/solar-energy-from-railways-shows-first-positive-results-in-switzerland/91628036 https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/emissions-reduction/solar-energ...
- zdragnar 3mo agoThat seems pretty optimistic in the long run. Even a high power leaf blower won't get all the dust off of a dirty surface, especially if any sort of hydraulic oil, bearing grease or other viscous fluid mists onto the surface.
- happosai 3mo agoAt least trains no longer drop literal shit between rails...
- Ma8ee 3mo agoOne thing that has struck me with our own solar panels is that they have to be very dirty before I notice any significant degradation in efficiency. And when they do get completely covered in pollen or leaves, a brief rain is usually enough to clean them.
- ajsnigrutin 3mo agoSolar sidewalks, solar roads, now solar rail? WHY?! Dave from eevblog did the math and it's bad Did we really fill up all the area on top of roofs, parkings lots, industrial areas, etc., and we're running out, and we have to put solar cells on railroads?
- Quitschquat 3mo agoI think these kinds of ideas capture easily impressionable, elected representatives whose technical knowledge is non existent.
- prmoustache 3mo ago> Did we really fill up all the area on top of roofs, parkings lots, industrial areas, etc., and we're running out, and we have to put solar cells on railroads? I guess it is easier to control the deployment since they own the railroads.
- leni536 3mo agoAnd all the train depots and train stations are already covered in solar panels, I presume.
- prmoustache 3mo agoThey don't need to because it is just a PoC and I don't think it hs been said anywhere that soloar panel between rain tracks would be the unique source of energy. There are also a lot of vertical sound proofing barriers that could be equipped with panels.
- marysol5 3mo ago"WHY DONT WE DO CARPARKS!" "Because it's up to the owners?"
- marysol5 3mo agoDave always points at them as "bad" because they can be better in other places. But ignore the bit of "why not both"
- reader9274 3mo agoThis will never work, and it's ridiculous: https://youtu.be/7vItnxhWRqw https://youtu.be/7vItnxhWRqw
- syllablehq 3mo agoAnd yet it did work, with positive results shown over a year, right? It seems that the reasons why this "could never work" like cracks, dust, and vibrations might have perfectly reasonable solutions. Solar panels have gotten so cheap that it might not be as important to install them in perfect conditions, and other factors like real estate, ease of maintenance, access to the grid come into play in interesting ways. I suppose long term results are yet to be seen, but it doesn't seem ridiculous to me.
- ryanmcbride 3mo agothere may be solutions to it but there are just already existing places to put solar panels that don't even require coming up with solutions.
- Aurornis 3mo ago> And yet it did work, You can put panels on anything and generate power for a couple years. This system was only 18kW. That’s less than what we put on some residential houses. They didn’t address any of the hard parts like a transmission system capable of scaling up along a linear row of panels extending kilometers long. > Solar panels have gotten so cheap that it might not be as important to install them in perfect conditions, and other factors like real estate, ease of maintenance, access to the grid come into play in interesting ways. They had to use special panels for this, not the cheap ones you know. Any installation in an area like this requires reinforced and protected panels, which are more expensive than what you’re thinking. You did identify some of the problems: Maintenance on this is terrible. They’re not going to shut down train routes to fix problems with the solar, so when something breaks it’s probably broken for years until a maintenance window can shut down transpiration. Access to grid is terrible. You can’t re-use the train power lines, so I guess we’re running new transmission lines? A linear array is the worst possible configuration for a solar array because it maximizes the transmission distance and starts to require high voltage equipment to work. Would you ever think it would be a good idea if someone suggested we go put solar panels out in the middle of nowhere between towns? Or would you agree it’s better to put them close to the towns on unused space like rooftops where they can feed directly into local loads? I think the visual of putting these on train tracks is misleading a lot of people into thinking we’re getting something for free when really this is an absurdly expensive way to place and connect solar panels.
- dvh 3mo agoSolar cell is the only practically viable power source with no moving parts. Stop trying to attach it to moving things. Movements breaks things. Just put the panels by the rail, e.g. as vertical sound barriers in reasonable distance (to lower the pressure waves from train) from tracks. Or on a nearby field where it can be protected and inspected all at one place.
- SoftTalker 3mo agoIt does seem kind of silly to put the panels between the rails, more prone to damage there from stuff falling off the trains, derailments, etc. and not angled for optimal sun exposure though I guess it's easy open space. Before I read the article I was thinking the electricity from the panels would power the trains but doesn't sound like the output is enough.
- dn3500 3mo agoThey're getting 180 watts per meter, so it would take 50 km of panels to power one high speed train. And that's when the sun is shining. Double this at least if you want to store the energy and run trains in the evening.
- 6510 3mo agoThis is incorrect, you mean 180 kWp/m. > in one year, the project has produced around 16,000 kWh. 160 kWh per meter. Urban Metro / Trams: 2 to 10 kWh/km Commuter Trains (EMUs): 4 to 12 kWh/km Regional / Intercity Trains: 6 to 20 kWh/km High-Speed Trains: 15 to 60 kWh/km Freight Locomotives: 10 to 50+ kWh/km
- dn3500 3mo agoIt's obviously not 180 kWp/m. If it was I could put 1 meter of panels on my roof and power my house and 200 of my neighbors. I didn't try to calculate the amount of energy it produces in a year, just the length of panels required to power a high speed train when the sun is shining. 18,000 watts / 100 meters is 180 watts per meter. At 180 watts per meter, 50 km gives you 9 MW, which is about what a high speed train consumes at cruise.
- Aurornis 3mo agoPutting solar panels in familiar places is always popular as an idea, but rarely better than putting them on the usual roofs or as rectangular arrays on the ground. > the railway was fitted with 48 specially-designed solar panels with a combined power of 18 kWp. 18 kW is less than what gets installed on a lot of houses. It took 100 meters to do this. The farther the panels get from the interconnect, the higher the losses along the line. It’s easy to set up 18kW of panels in one spot. Covering an entire railway with panels would require a different transmission setup to get the power back to somewhere useful. I really wish we could just forget all of these ideas to put solar panels in places that are highly trafficked and serving double duty. Just put them in unused space that isn’t used for anything else: Rooftops, empty fields, or over parking garages. I often get downvoted for saying this because a lot of people like these ideas of putting solar panels in space that they see, like sidewalks or roads or railways, but we have so much unused space that isn’t near foot traffic, road traffic, or railways that is so much cheaper and easier to use for solar. These projects usually turn into political grifts to get government funding because the ideas are not economically viable alternatives.
- ceejayoz 3mo ago> It took 100 meters to do this. Thankfully, Switzerland has lots of meters of railway. > Covering an entire railway with panels would require a different transmission setup to get the power back to somewhere useful. There's caternary on 99% of Swiss rail, every few dozen meters, that already transmits power.
- mschuster91 3mo ago> There's caternary on 99% of Swiss rail, every few dozen meters, that already transmits power. Switzerland runs on 15 kV catenary voltage. Transformers suitable for that kind of voltage cost a lot of money.
- herbst 3mo agoTo be fair, swiss train tickets cost a lot of money too.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- CrzyLngPwd 3mo agoI'm in the south UK, live off grid, and have a bunch of solar panels, none of them are flat aside from the 640w of panels on my van, which generate almost nothing during the Winter. Panels on the sides ot trains might be a better solution.
- CrzyLngPwd 3mo agoWTF is the downvote for?
- comrade1234 3mo agoYou didn't promote nuclear power.
- CrzyLngPwd 3mo agoBut promoting it seems like a way to get bombed back to the stone age by the Muricans.
- marysol5 3mo agoAnd then dismiss any criticisms of it as "paid agitator"
- jeffbee 3mo agoI don't know why people fall for this stuff. It doesn't make any kind of sense. You put the panels in a rectangular array in any convenient place. That's what wires are for.
- brudgers 3mo agoI've been nerd-sniped into google fueled napkin math. 18kw/100 m = 180kw/km The most powerful Swiss electric locomotive [1] maxes out at 7900kw. That's 44km of track. The most common Swiss electric (4/4) typicaly maxes at 6100kw requiring up to 34km of track. Switzeraland has about 5000km of track and 180 is about 200, so a million kilowatts if all the track has solar panels. Assuming 3000kw per locomotive and 100% efficiency [2], that's 300 electrical locomotives running simultaneously. The Swiss fleet is about four times that. --- Of course I am no expert. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stock_used_by_Swiss_Federal_Railways#Electric_locomotives https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stock_used_by_Swiss_Fe... [2] and ignoring the 10 per year efficiency loss of the panels mentioned in the article
- Youden 3mo agoYou don't need peak power all the time. The point of trains is that they're extremely efficient; most of the time they're essentially coasting, they only need a lot of power when accelerating or ascending. If you want hard numbers, SBB used 1685GWh for passenger trains in 2025 [0]. The bigger problem with this idea is solar in Switzerland. It's fantastic during the summer but close to nonexistent during the winter [1]. Trains need to run year-round, so you'd need to overbuild solar monstrously to power SBB during the winter, or you'd need to solve seasonal electricity storage, which isn't easy. Pumped hydro is great but Switzerland has already built about as many artificial alpine lakes as the population is likely to tolerate. [0]: https://reporting.sbb.ch/en/sustainability?=&years=5,6,7,1&scroll=1469.3333740234375&highlighted= https://reporting.sbb.ch/en/sustainability?=&years=5,6,7,1&s... [1]: https://energiedashboard.admin.ch/strom/produktion https://energiedashboard.admin.ch/strom/produktion
- brudgers 3mo agoYou don't need peak power all the time 3000kw is about 1/2 power for the most common Swiss electric engines. And peak demand determines grid size.
- chinathrow 3mo ago> they only need a lot of power when accelerating or ascending. Regenerative breaking on trains is a thing.
- BretonForearm 3mo agoBad website. No photo, only a video, and that wants to start with an ad.
- jmward01 3mo agoThis is a great example of the solar ecosystem finding new niches. Tracks are likely good because there is already constant maintenance and inspections on them as well as ready hookup to the grid or, as the article mentions, directly providing power for trains. The point here isn't that this is 'the most efficient way to use solar' it is that it works and provides benefit. It is like agrovoltaics. The solar production is lower than a dedicated solar installation, but the dual use of the land and potential secondary benefits make it worth while. It looks like this could even get to the point where solar could actually power the trains completely assuming this expanded a little beyond just the track surface which could be interesting for the design of trains.
- marysol5 3mo agoSolar Naysayers are so odd. "If it's not a 100% PERFECT solution we shouldn't do it"
- everyday7732 3mo agoIt's more like. "This is significantly more complicated and expensive than the obvious simple solution we already have". The same money that is being spent on this project could instead be spent installing much more solar on rooftops or solar farms. In an ideal world we would try both but in this world we have limited budgets and time. There are interesting aspects to the project like the idea of the train being able to clean the panels as it goes over them, or having a pre-made track for easier install and maintenance, but these seem quite minor when you consider the number of obstacles (increased mechanical strain, possibility of damage, non-optimal angle, hard to schedule maintenance around train times, maintenance is more dangerous, all the panels are placed linearly so you need extra cable routing, large efficiency losses when you're trying to transport low voltage electricity from remote areas).
- tim333 3mo agoThis has some more photos of the solar panels and the laying of them https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/emissions-reduction/solar-energy-from-railways-shows-first-positive-results-in-switzerland/91628036 https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/emissions-reduction/solar-energ...
- panick21_ 3mo agoSince the 90s our energy policy has been idiotic. Basically just politicians saying 'lets do nothing we can always buy cheap power form Germany or France'. All we had to do is build a single new nuclear power plant and we would have been fine. But no, instead we have this grifting rail solar nonsense.
- MisterTea 3mo agoThis is another bad idea in the same vein of solar roadways. To the layman, these ideas sound fantastic. To the knowledgeable they sound downright absurd. Put them on roofs, over car parks, over land. No way should they be on difficult to access locations with vehicle traffic.
- teslaberry 3mo ago[dead]