269
Trains in Switzerland Are Now Running Over Solar Panels in a First-of-Its-Kind Test
(www.zmescience.com)
this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2026
269 points (98.2% liked)
Green Energy
4383 readers
194 users here now
Everything about energy production and storage.
Related communities:
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Three years ago EEVBlog already published a Video why this is a terrible idea: https://youtu.be/7vItnxhWRqw
Im not convinced much has changed since then. As a Swiss citizen it's a bit disappointing that a apparent cash grab like this is possible.
And this is why they only put 100m of panels, to test and validate the idea before commiting to any large scale project. As a swiss citizen too, I'm on the contrary quite happy to see those test projects to give a chance to new technologies (or ways to utilize said technologies) before any real investment.
I think the biggest limitations will be security, someone will definitely be trying to steal them
steal them
train damages them
they get dirty
Wildlife infestation
It makes more sense to put them up out of the way angled toward the sun
just set up bleacher style farms along train routes
Isn’t this the case with all existing panels?
Yeah but you probably need to put them for long distances and you can't really put cameras for hundreds of kilometres instead of let's say the top of a parking lots or an enclosed field
Tbh this video has poor arguments:
This guy was never to Switzerland.
Dust --> attach a brush infront of the train
Im not sure we use the machine that he showed in the video to replace the gravel. At the same time it looks like the tracks stay untouched. Its not something that is done often.
He talks about huge shipments of coal in Switzerland xd WHAT THE HELLY ??!!(the 1800s called, they want their environmental policy back)
He wants private citizens to plaster their roofs and their soil with solar. Well they can i guess but its their decision. Just know that the cows in Switzerland usually graze on grass. The railway is 100% Eidgenossen owned.
2% is 2%. People cry about every Rappen on the powerbill. I wouldnt mind paying 2% less and im not even a company.
In the comments they talk about the toilet releasing the waste on the tracks. In Switzerlands trains theres WC's (water closets). So the sun will evaporate the waste. Also we dont want to eat from the panels its just to generate electricity.
So i found an argument against every argument of his and it took me 10 minutes.
I respect the effort tho it was fun to watch.
I agree with you in that a lot of his arguments are inconveniences rather than blockers. but there are still a lot of problems with the design when we could easily not put them right exactly there and end up with a better outcome.
Dust + water isn't going to just brush off, they'll need to send purpose build devices to wash them and it's not going to work well at speed.
Rebalasting track has to happen based on environment. Some areas will need it often, the rocks beneath the ties end up getting pushed deeper and need to be back-filled
Waste has a lot of mineral content and the bioplaques are incredubly durable and not see through.
Coal is less prevalant, but even at that, yhere is noting clean about rail lines. Brakes, metal on metal wheels. def need to wash the panels and probably agitate to get dirt off that close to the suspension. It's solvable. but putting them on racks a few feet away from the track would be less of a mess, not cost all that much and make maintenance and diagnostics easier.
All in all, putting them along rail lines is a reasonable idea, but there's no real need to cause all these difficulties if they just put them up on slightly elevated structures to one side of the track. The cost for galvanized pipes is barely a rounding error on the whole project.
Are Balkonkraftwerke legal in Switzerland?
Yes, and i see them often even in places where theres not much sun.
I don't know whether their owners track their production for estimating ROI, but I'm getting 1.7 MWh/year from a 2 kWp DIY in a nonoptimal orientation with some shading, which is worth it at 0.3 EUR/kWh (ok, if your meter can't run backwards you will need some storage, which has also a cost).