A Swiss company that took on a small pilot project last year is demonstrating great results.
Sun-Ways creates solar panels that can be installed on railway tracks. Their pilot project was to test the solar panels on an 100m length of track in Buttes Switzerland over the course of three years. The success of the first year, in which 16,000 kWh of electricity was generated prompted the company to make the installation permanent, well ahead of the original end of the pilot.
Sun-Ways estimates that the panels could generate approximately 2% of Switzerland’s electricity needs if the solar panels are installed on all of Switzerland's 5,300kms (~3,290 miles) of railway tracks.
The success doesn't stop in Switzerland. Pilot projects are launching in Italy and South Korea and hopefully these will be just as successful.
This is exciting news and is it great to see existing infrastructure doing double duty.