PV = Photovoltaic
At least for right now it’s just a test on a 100-meter length of track, but this reeks of a startup trying to innovate its way out of NIMBYs not wanting to put solar panels where they actually belong without considering why nobody has put solar panels in the middle of a railroad track before (cough rocks, dust, wildlife, vibration, and vandalism cough).
PV Magazine is neat for reading about potential new innovations, but one thing I really dislike about it is that it basically just regurgitates what solar companies say about themselves in press releases in a way that’s completely uncritical. For instance:
Similarly, removal and installation tests will be carried out to demonstrate that the Sunways pilot installation is perfectly adapted to the constraints related to maintenance work and the operation of the line.
One more reason. The reason they tell people not to lay on the tracks under the train, the freaking cables and chains that could come loose and dangle under the cars and drag along the ground that would cut you in half the long way. Those loose parts would just destroy the solar panels.
anyone remember solar roadways?
This isn’t nearly that dumb, because the train isn’t actually riding directly on top of the solar cells.
It’s close though, random shit gets dragged, kicked, dropped, etc all the time by trains.
A chain , cable, or wire comes loose on a car and goodbye panels and like all of them …
If a chain, cable, or wire comes loose on a car then the panels are the least of anyone’s worries. Also expect emergency brakes to kick in automatically. This is a train, not a bicycle.
I don’t why they don’t overhang them on frames. It’d cost more upfront, but hell alot cheaper than replacing the broken panels all the time.
A chain , cable, or wire comes loose on a car and goodbye panels and like all of them …
where are you from and when have you last seen a train?
They could pair that with sensors / cameras for hanging things. These are already being produced and installed on tracks.
But still, what is the point of this? What problem does this solve? It’s not like solar power deployment is bottlenecked by a lack of space to put the panels.
This just makes it more expensive and more difficult to maintain for no reason.
Yeah, I looked up the French solar roadways after seeing this to see the headline of ‘total disaster’. So as expected.
Lamps were “total disasters” until they weren’t. Crosswalks even. Toilets in Seattle.
There are lots of things that were “total disasters” at one point but were developed into safe reliable things. That’s not a reason to abandon an endeavor entirely, but a great reason to redirect or refine it.
Also, headlines are not news, and most non-electrical engineers, let alone journalists, know jack fucking shit about electrical engineering. EEVBlog did a great few videos about solar roadways and their flaws.
I’m interested to see how this turns out, because I’m thinking this would significantly increase maintenance costs on those panels due to rocks being kicked up, vibration from the train, etc.
Maybe it’s like a blanket that the train picks up over its head and runs underneath, setting it back down on the ground after it
Reminds me of this, but in reverse:
Pretty close. Quick lets patent it
There shouldn’t be any rocks kicked up because the trains should stay on the rails, not touch the ballast.
But dirt, debris, and brake dust will absolutely collect very quickly. Maybe they’re counting on rain to keep them clean.
There’s still massive amounts of air pressure changes Those can definitely lift some smaller rocks
Good thing they stopped emptying train toilets on the tracks.
My first reaction was how stupid this is. Dirt, debris and other things will get on the panels and cause lots of problems, but after a few minutes I realized it’s actually quite brilliant.
There are three major costs of solar, the panels, the location, and the wiring + inverters. If the tracks are used as the wires (extremely low resistance paths back to an inverter), the location is wasted space so basically free, and the inverter can be placed anywhere along the path to remove the power from the tracks, the cost of this comes down to mainly the cost of the panel, which is actually pretty cheep these days.
The real challenges will be in cleaning & maintenance, vandalism, and modifying the track to limit the conductive paths (assuming they’re used for this).
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.
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.
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
The cleanliness of the panels isn’t actually as big a deal as it’s made out to be. Like yeah, they can’t be completely obscured, but you’d be surprised at how fucking filthy they can be and still make juice. Or half-or more- covered with trees, or other shade.
Right now, my panels are covered in enough crap I really should hose them off, and they’re still kicking 20 amps. So ahhh… fuck it. Maybe it’ll rain and I won’t have to.
Same with cloudy days-sometimes I get more power on cloudy days because the panels don’t get at hot. Hell, some streetlights put out enough light to harvest energy from-but they’re largely getting replaced with LED’s. Sad face?
I expect with the type of traffic going on between rails, these will need vanishingly little maintenance. I hope it goes well
Throw a few of those sexy lady mud flaps on the back of a train with a hose. Darn near auto squeegee!
While I know things are generally more expensive in Switzerland, $685,000 is crazy expensive for just 18 kW (48 panels).
This doesn’t seem like it would work. Debris falling off the trains, dusty buildup, vibrations, rocks bouncing around the tracks; heck, even just wildlife crossing the tracks. So many things are gonna damage those panels if they’re just lying on the ground between tracks, and solar panels are extremely fragile.
I hope they have some sort of bullet proof glass or something over those panels. Probably going to need a special train to spray water over them to clean regularly, too.
I dunno about Swiss trains, but the tracks behind my house in America leave a thick black film on everything, and it’s very hard to clean by hand. I think they transport coal.
And the piss and shit.
Reminds me of “solar freaking roadways!”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H901KdXgHs4&pp=ygUgc29sYXIgcG93ZXJlZCByb2Fkd2F5cyB2YXBvcndhcmU%3D
I remember doing this in factorio
Gut, dass da zwischen den Schienen nie irgendwelche Steine rumfliegen…???
That’s not much of a pilot. I run 43kW at my house.
Relevant Dave Jones debunk. https://youtu.be/7vItnxhWRqw?feature=shared
