Solar system on Swiss train route – pilot project started

At first the federal government was against it due to security concerns, but now the first section of the railway with solar panels has been inaugurated. SBB and an expert react to the pilot project with great goals.

Those who take the train rattles over gravel stones and cross -thresholds made of wood or granite. Otherwise it has a little weed between the tracks. The area that extends over a length of over 5000 kilometers is not used. That changes now: On Thursday at Buttes in Val-de-Travers ne, the first solar power plant between railway tracks was inaugurated in Switzerland.

The pilot plant comprises 48 solar panels over a length of 100 meters. Joseph Scuderi, founder of the start-up Sun-Ways and driving force behind the project, speaks of « a small drop in a ocean of needs », which is supposed to open the way to broad application.

It is undisputed that Switzerland has to expand renewable energies in order to compensate for the eliminating nuclear power. Wind farms or alpine solar systems are controversial. Laurent Favre, environmental director in the canton of Neuchâtel (FDP), is therefore convinced of photovoltaic systems between railway tracks: « We have to attach the solar panels to existing infrastructure and not in meadows in the agricultural field. »

SBB observe the project

As simple as the solution sounds, however, its implementation was so complicated – only for a distance of 100 meters. How this newspaper made publicthe Federal Office of Transport opposed the project in Buttes two years ago. The reason for this was security concerns and possible disorders of train traffic for maintenance work. Only after Sun-Ways worked out a prototype, the federal government gave the green light for a three -year test run.

The developed system can be removed for maintenance work. How this works, on Thursday, in addition to representatives of SBB, delegations from France, Israel, South Korea and Belgium looked at. A special train over 100 meters long runs over the solar panels. Guide workers loosen them from hand from the anchorage. Then a lifting device lowers, on which six panels can be attached three times and lifted on the train. The process took almost ten minutes during the demonstration – as well as reinstalling.