The French railway operator SNCF has commenced six months of performance testing of a new prototype that generates energy from PV panels placed on non-operational railway tracks. SNCF possesses vast land reserves in France – more than 113,800 hectares. By 2030 it plans to install 1,000MWp (megawatt peak) of ground-based PV capacity on this land.
AREP, a subsidiary of SNCF, has been developing a container-based, portable solar power plant that can be placed on non-operational railway tracks and then relocated as needed. The aim of the project – known as Solveig – is to minimise the footprint of solar installations on the ground while enhancing the solar potential of unused rail lines.
The project’s prototype, which includes eight PV panels together with inverters, storage batteries and mounting equipment, can be shipped either by road or rail to site in standardised ISO containers. The mounting equipment, which includes a telescopic arm, is used to unload the panels from the container. These are then laid on the tracks and fixed in place. The installation does not require permanent foundations to be built or any construction work.
It’s kinda funny that they are using the tracks…they have a huge amount of land that is just empty right beside the tracks…just offload them from flat cars and accordion them as far as the right of way extends…then wire them into the catenary, or run more wiring if needed…pull up with 2km of flat cars and dump them next to the track…go back to the factory/ship from china for another 2km of flat cars and dump it on the other side of the track…if you can do 100m on either side…you’ve just built a 10MW solar farm…
How exactly do they expect to inspect or maintain the track? Never mind things like signalling balises. Or brake dust and the like making the panels dirty.
Solar panels in the four-foot cannot possibly work.