Buttes is a relatively small railway station on the Western edge of Switzerland, next to the French border, near Dijon. It is the pilot-location chosen by Sun-Ways co-founders Joseph Scuderi and Baptiste Danichert, to see if it is feasible to embed solar panels between railway tracks. The idea is ingenious and innovative – but is it practical?
The Swiss Power Grid is one of the world’s most carbon neutral systems. According to their Worldometer charts, 34% normally comes from nuclear reactors and the remaining 66% from renewables – with the bulk of that (58%) coming from hydroelectric plants.
Depending on conditions, Switzerland can be a net exporter in any given year – and it certainly exports power on a regular basis. With the global increase in demand for clean energy and disturbed weather patterns, the country was happy to be involved in a new trial programme to look at the practicalities of embedding solar panels within rail tracks.
This pilot project in Buttes will only cover 100 metres of track, but it will allow Sun-Ways to look at the practicalities of laying solar panels, with a large amount of automation, from underneath a specially fitted rail carriage – a bit like laying a mechanical conveyor belt.
As the panels are laid, the special clamps that they are fitted with, will help lock them in place (below). If all goes well, then they can be removed just as quickly/easily for maintenance. Although anecdotal evidence suggests that modern solar panels are quite effective, even when dirty, Sun-Says is still looking at a method of fitting passenger trains with cylindrical brushes underneath – so the solar panels can be cleaned by the passing of a regular train.
Given Switzerland’s particular geography, the inventors are also looking at ways to get rid of snow and ice that might build up during the winter months.
So how much power can be generated this way?
Well, based on available calculations, the founders of Sun-Ways estimate that around 2% of Switzerland’s power could come from this type of solar panel installation. That's power in the order of 1-2 terawatts per hour. Improvements in panel technology over time, could increase that amount.
Assuming that power consumption is the same across countries like Switzerland, France and the USA, we can do a simple calculation to work out the amount of ‘Rail Track per Capita’. The average for these three countries is just over 600km of track per million people living there. The figure for the UK is much smaller, at 239km of track per million. You can see on these ‘My Life Elsewhere‘ charts, how the scale for deployment would vary between Switzerland, the UK and USA. Switzerland is a little smaller than Ohio – roughly the size of the south of England – up to the M4.
That would mean that this kind of project might only be able to deliver 1% of the UK’s demand for solar power, but it would be ‘free’ power once the system was deployed – and independent of imports, which could help stabilise prices during times of trouble.
As well as the initial costs, there would also be the repair/up-keep costs and the issue of theft – which may affect other countries more than Switzerland.
Right now, there are too many variables, but it will be interesting to see what kind of data Sun-Ways is able to capture from its test programme. We will follow up when they make their results public.