Linear PV: World-first removable solar plant installed along railway tracks

A Switzerland based startup has inaugurated what it says is the world’s first removable solar power plant on an operational railway line, in a move that it says has the potential to revolutionise the global rollout of solar PV capacity.

Sun-Ways – a specialist in “linear photovolaics” – received a permit from Switzerland’s Federal Office of Transport (BAV) in October of 2024 to proceed with the pilot project which would see 100 metres of removable solar PV panels laid between railway tracks in the country’s west.

The 18kW solar installation consists of 48 solar panels each rated at 385W each, and feeds power into the local grid. Normal rail operations are expected to see passenger trains traversing the section of rail beginning this week.

Dubbed ferrovoltaïque – combining ‘ferro’ for the iron railway tracks and voltaïque (voltaic) for photovoltaics (PV) – Sun-Ways is hoping to target the 1 million kilometres of railway tracks that currently traverse the planet. It says it is negotiating trials in France, Spain, Romania and South Korea, and there is potential in Australia, China and the US.

‘By integrating photovoltaics into the railway ecosystem, we can directly power trains with renewable energy, but also power charging stations for electric vehicles, while reducing CO2 emissions and increasing the energy independence of a country’s entire public transport system,” the company says.

Sun-Ways says it has also developed the mechanism to lay and remove the solar panels, which are laid between the railway tracks.

It says the solar panels can be laid or removed using a mechanised railway machine developed by Swiss track maintenance company Scheuchzer which is capable of rolling out up to 1,000 m² of solar panels per day.

A handful of foreign delegations from France, Belgium, Indonesia, South Korea, and Israel were also on hand to witness the inauguration of the project, a clue as to the future of the technology.

Sun-Ways intends to carry out tests over the next three years to determine the system’s impact on rail infrastructure and whether rail operations are able to run safely with the removable solar array mounted between the tracks.