🌅 These Train Tracks Double as Solar Power Plants

SOURCE

SNCF Group

WHAT TO KNOW

• Swiss startup Sun-Ways is piloting a new solar project that takes advantage of the unused space between railway tracks, outfitting a 100-meter stretch of active railway with 48 solar panels that have produced 16,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity since May 2025 (enough to power three to four Swiss households). The panels sit on the sleepers (a.k.a., railroad ties) between the tracks and can be removed for maintenance or inspections. A specialized railcar lays the panels as it travels along the tracks, unrolling them like a carpet.

WHY IT MATTERS

• Sun-Ways hopes to expand the project to cover the country’s 3,300 miles of railways—excluding tunnels and poorly lit sections—which the company says could generate up to 1 billion kWh of energy per year, corresponding to the annual consumption of roughly 300,000 Swiss households or about 2% of the country’s yearly needs. The pilot project was designed to be a three-year trial, but the early success reportedly means it will become a permanent installation. Sun-Ways says the generated power can be used in three ways: by reinjecting it back into the railway’s low-voltage network (to power things like switches and signals), sending it out to the nearest local grid, or reinjecting it into the traction energy network that powers trains.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• Like installing solar canopies over parking lots, covering railways with solar panels could be a boon for train-centric countries, like many in Europe and Asia (Sun-Ways has already signed an agreement to expand the project to Italy, received government approval in South Korea, and began discussions to expand the project to the Netherlands, China, India, and Singapore). Solar railways could also be a major renewable energy producer in the U.S., which has the largest rail network of any country in the world.