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Switzerland authorizes removable PV plant on railway track (www.pv-magazine.com)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

83 comments fedilink hide all child comments

PV = Photovoltaic

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

If the tracks are used as the wires

They're not. Swiss rails are extra made so that you can walk over them. All electricity goes overhead for security reasons. If anything, they would probably tap into this overhead-grid.

cleaning & maintenance

possibly. But I can very easily imagine specialized trains cleaning them once every day

vandalism

not really a problem here in switzerland

modifying the track to limit the conductive paths (assuming they’re used for this).

They're most likely not used for this. All electricity is overhead for security reasons, routing solar energy through the rails would destroy that. Doing that (beyond the 100m test-track) would mean a prolongued political discussion.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

So I have a solar setup-older panels, like 15 years old. They can be 3/4 obscured by a building or whatever, and still make 85% of what they're rated to.

Which is fucking awesome. Right now, they're covered in so much dust I can see the 'clean' spots where the morning dew condensed on them, and they're still kicking 20 amps, about 15 more than I actually need.

Daily cleaning? Way excessive. Monthly? Maybe, probably less. Not a whole lot going on in between rails.

I'd be way more worried about tweakers trying to steal the wiring

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

All electricity is overhead for security reasons, routing solar energy through the rails would destroy that. Doing that (beyond the 100m test-track) would mean a prolongued political discussion.

Electricity is overhead for safety reasons (maybe that's what you meant by "security reasons"). As long as the voltage is kept low (< 48V) and the runs of solar panels aren't too long, the power can be run safely in the tracks.