In Switzerland, as a test, 48 solar panels have been laid between the tracks on an active railway line between Neuchâtel and Buttes. News about it here, and cue all the feel-good-but-don’t-think-twice influencers crowing about it. But let’s think twice about this.
First, should you install solar panels in a place that:
– gets covered in brake dust and other muck
– is subject to vibrations every time a train passes
– is liable to have things falling onto the panels (such as part melted ice in winter time, that drops off trains)
– have to be moved every time you need to do any sort of track maintenance
That doesn’t look ideal to me!
There is some idea that the trains themselves – fitted with some sort of brushes – could clean the panels. That might just about work on this isolated branch line that has one sort of rolling stock, but on a mainline this is going to be fraught with problems. Any train that is approved to run in France or Belgium, and in Switzerland, is going to have very much the wrong sort of brush on it for a start – a metal one that will scratch the panels!
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