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Swiss Startup Sun-Ways Introduces World's First Solar Panel Overspread for Railway Tracks

The pilot project will focus on Western Switzerland's public rail system near to the Buttes train station.

March 20, 2023. By EI News Network

Swiss startup company Sun-Ways has designed a mechanical appliance to use removable solar panels across the railway tracks.

The pilot project will focus on Western Switzerland's public rail system near to the Buttes train station.

The region between railroad lines is widely sufficient to set and adjust standard-sized solar panels without approaching train passage.

Large installations are tough to build because of a scarcity of available space. Moreover, solar panels between rails, whereas have no observable environmental effect.

Sun-Ways engage factory-prefitted solar panels from Switzerland. The one meter broad panels are directly positioned between train lines and secured to the rails using a piston mechanism.

In alliance with EPFL, the Swiss Federal Technology Institute in Lausanne, Sun-Ways is the first to have apparently patented a removable system.

With a view to prevent reflections from blazing into train drivers' eyes, Sun-Ways proves that their panels are more resistant.

The Swiss rail network has an overall length of 5,317 kilometers, and plan that all could be covered with solar panels. This would surround an area approximately equal to 760 football fields, excluding tunnels and regions with scanty amount of sunlight.

The country's rail system could produce 1 Terawatt-hour of solar energy per year,i.e. around 2 percent of Switzerland's overall electricity requirements.

Sun-Ways aims to widen its reach in the approaching years into other areas of Europe, comprising the nearby countries of Germany, Austria, and Italy, along with the United States and Asia.

Tags:

Removable solar panels

Large installations