Next year, the first section of railway in Switzerland will be fitted with solar panels as part of a pioneering pilot project. The company behind the trial hopes to install solar panels across the Swiss public transport network, but certain safety concerns remain.
Writing in a statement, Sun Ways confirmed that it would be testing its solar panel concept on a railway in Buttes Canton Neuchâtel in the spring of 2025 - a world first. Under the plans, solar panels will be installed in the gap between the two rails on a 100-metre section of track.
The company argued that the 1,5-metre gap along the 5.300 kilometres of track in Switzerland would be perfect for solar panels, providing a quick, easy and non-disruptive way to build up solar power capacity - a sector where the alpine nation is falling far behind its neighbours. Sun Ways estimated that if all sun-exposed tracks had solar panels, it would deliver 2 percent of Switzerland's demand for energy on its own.
The pilot project is the culmination of various back and forths between the Swiss government, Sun Ways and Neuchâtel transport provider transN. Back in 2023, the Federal Office for Transport (FOT) rejected the plan, as they could not guarantee the maintenance and safety of the track and worried that repairing the solar panels could lead to more frequent rail delays.
This forced Sun Ways back to the drawing board. Thanks to this newly revised scheme, the company from Vaud predicts that trains will be able to pass over the panels at 150 kilometres an hour without incident. "The authorities' very cautious approach is positive because it forces us to redouble our efforts," Sun Ways CEO Joseph Scuderi told Watson.
"If we achieve a breakthrough here, nothing will stand in the way of large-scale use in Switzerland and elsewhere," Scuderi continued. Already, a spokesperson from Swiss Federal Railways confirmed that they are watching the trial with interest.
Despite its approval, the FOT is still not entirely keen on the plan. “There are still open questions," noted spokesperson Florence Pictet, adding that the pilot project has to last four years in order to analyse the “behaviour of the road surface, for example in terms of fatigue and wear.”
While they don’t consider the project to be an “uncontrollable safety risk”, in their acceptance the FOT said they are of “the opinion that the tracks are fundamentally unsuitable for the installation of solar modules." It is now up to the pilot project to prove them wrong.