Swiss start-up turns railway tracks into solar power plants

• 12 days ago (2025-05-01)
• David Flin

Europe 1113 Solar 289

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Sun-Ways , a Swiss start-up, is testing a system of installation of solar panels between railway tracks, and has placed 100 m of solar panels on tracks in Buttes, a small village in canton Neuchâtel in western Switzerland.

This is not the first time solar energy has been integrated into rail infrastructure. Projects in Germany, Italy, France and Japan are testing solar panels between the rails. However, the Swiss start-up is the first to have designed a removable system that can be placed on railway lines that are open to traffic.

Joseph Scuderi, founder of Sun-Ways, said: “We installed solar panels as we would on the roof of a house.”

The Buttes installation consists of 48 solar panels placed on railroad sleepers. The electricity generated by the panels is fed into the local power grid. The solar rail power plant in Buttes will produce up to 16 MWh annually.

Sun-Ways says the approximately 5320 km of the Swiss rail network – minus sections in tunnels or with little sunshine – could generate 1 TWh annually, corresponding to 2 per cent of the electricity used in Switzerland.