Groundbreaking solar railway project gets back on track

The solar modules can be installed manually or mechanically using a railway machine specially designed by Scheuchzer SA. It claims it can install up to 1,000 m2 of solar panels per day. Sun-Ways

Swiss authorities have given the green light to a three-year pilot project to install removable solar panels on a railway track in western Switzerland. The unique technology has been generating interest in other countries.

Sun-WaysExternal link, a small private start-up, confirmed last week that after ten months of building prototypes, doing tests, taking measurements and obtaining expert appraisals, the Federal Office of Transport (FOT) had finally granted them a permit to begin testing their technology on a railway line open to traffic in canton Neuchâtel.

The company will begin deploying its removable solar panel system from spring 2025 on a 100-metre section of track operated by transN, canton Neuchâtel’s public transport company. For the initial three-year test phase, 48 panels will be inserted on sleepers between the tracks, together with electricity infrastructure, to be able to inject power into the local grid. The initial test phase is budgeted at CHF585,000 ($681,000).

This will be a world first, said Sun-Ways CEO Joseph Scuderi.

“This will be the first time that solar panels will be installed on a railway track with trains that pass over them,” he told SWI swissinfo.ch.

The idea of installing solar panels along railway tracks is not new. Two other companies, Italy’s Greenrail and England’s Bankset Energy, have been testing photovoltaic elements installed on railway sleepers. However, Sun-Ways is the first to have patented a removable system, in collaboration with EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne.

The company’s solar modules can be installed manually or mechanically using a railway machine specially designed by Scheuchzer SA, an expert in railway maintenance. It claims to be able to install up to 1,000 m2 of solar panels per day. Each element of the solar power installation can also be quickly removed to allow for maintenance work or to be replaced.

Sun-Ways will begin testing their technology in spring 2025 on a railway line open to traffic near Buttes in canton Neuchâtel in western Switzerland. Sun-Ways

“At any time you can remove the panels to re-do some welding, remove a bolt or change a sleeper,” said Scuderi.

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The entrepreneur is relieved, as his project was seriously derailed last summer. The transport office initially rejected Sun-Ways’s request as a precautionary measure, as it did not have any technical references about the proposed solar technology. But after submitting specially-built prototypes and additional technical reports, the test phase is set to begin.

Pilot projects around the world

International interest in the Sun-Ways technology is growing.

“Sometimes I’m a bit overwhelmed by what’s happening,” said Scuderi. “Things are moving rapidly.”

After his firm won start-up innovation prizes in France, a solar pilot project began taking shape with the national state-owned rail company SNCF. Sun-Ways is involved in similar projects being planned in South Korea, Spain and Romania, while discussions are underway with potential partners in China, Thailand, Australia and the United States.

The Vaud-based start-up had to create several prototypes to convince the Federal Office of Transport (FOT) to grant a permit to start the pilot project. Sun-Ways

In Switzerland, the firm has also devised a solar panel system for private railroads leading to warehouses or industrial estates. The municipality of Aigle in canton Vaud has agreed to carry out a feasibility study to install a solar power plant on a 1,500-metre section of private track serving its industrial zone.

Potential to feed the energy grid

What kind of environmental impact could solar-rail technology have? Sun-Ways claims that panels could be installed on all 5,317 kilometres of the Swiss rail network. In so doing, the national rail network could produce up to 1 Terawatt-hour (TWh) of solar energy per year, or about 2% of the electricity consumed in Switzerland, it says.

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FOT spokesperson Mark Siegenthaler could not confirm Sun-Way’s long-term estimates. But the production of renewable energy in the vicinity of railway infrastructure is “to be welcomed”, he told SWI swissinfo.ch.

The priority, said Siegenthaler, is for Sun-Ways and transN to gain experience from the three-year pilot on key issues like how the track behaves in terms of fatigue and wear, and the challenges of maintaining and monitoring the track system.

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Last year the International Union of Railways highlighted to SWI swissinfo.ch potential problems that may arise like micro-cracks on panels, the higher risk of fires beside railway tracks, and additional reflected noise. Scuderi insists that his initiative is still very much at the pilot-project stage and that “we will no doubt learn a great deal to improve the technology”.

Accelerating the uptake of solar power

Boosting solar power is one of the main planks of Switzerland’s 2050 net-zero strategy. The authorities want 45 terawatt hours of solar and wind-generated electricity a year by 2050 (a seven-fold increase on 2023). Recently, Switzerland passed legislation to accelerate the uptake of solar power nationwide. The Swiss government supports the installation of panels on a range of surfaces, from roofs to motorways – and even Alpine pastures.

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Like in many other countries around the world, the Swiss photovoltaic market has been growing strongly recently, with annual increases of solar-generated electricity of more than 40% since 2020. 

“The development of solar energy currently provides an additional 2-3% of Switzerland’s electricity needs each year. Solar electricity is thus becoming, alongside hydropower, the second pillar of our electricity supply. By 2050, solar electricity will be able to cover 50% of annual requirements despite increasing consumption,” says Matthias Egli, chief executive officer of Swissolar, the Swiss professional association for solar energy. 

Switzerland is playing catch-up

Despite this growth spurt, Switzerland continues to lag behind other European countries.

A study by the Swiss Energy Foundation published in May that looks at solar and wind power production per capita in Europe ranked Switzerland 22nd, just ahead of Malta, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia and Latvia.

When it comes to solar energy, Switzerland is clearly outperformed by northern European countries that enjoy less solar radiation. The Netherlands came top last year, producing over twice as much solar power per person as Switzerland. Germany also surpasses Switzerland in its solar power production per capita.

The problem, says the foundation, is that Switzerland has been held back by its legal framework. “The financial and planning risks for investments in wind and solar plants are too high,” it wrote in May. New legislation, such as the Electricity Law endorsed by voters in June 2024, which aims to boost the development of renewable energy, should help ensure “binding targets and investment-friendly framework conditions”, it added.