Energy Railroad line with mobile solar modules opened
Joseph Scuderi, head of Sun Ways, at the opening of the railroad line with solar modules in Buttes.
Image: Keystone
The solar modules can be installed quickly using a special train.
Image: Keystone
A worker checks the installation of the solar modules between the tracks.
Image: Keystone
Joseph Scuderi, head of Sun Ways, at the opening of the railroad line with solar modules in Buttes.
Image: Keystone
The solar modules can be installed quickly using a special train.
Image: Keystone
A worker checks the installation of the solar modules between the tracks.
Image: Keystone
The first Swiss train line with mobile solar modules was inaugurated on Thursday in Buttes in the canton of Neuchâtel. The trains run on solar panels within the railroad tracks.
24.04.2025, 16:01
SDA
With a rail network of over 5000 kilometers, there is great potential for this innovation in Switzerland. The unused space between the two rails is used to generate electricity from 100 percent renewable solar sources, emphasized the Vaud-based start-up Sun-Ways in a press release on Thursday.
"In the long term, we are aiming to produce the energy between the rails, but also to feed it into the trains' traction current in order to achieve practically 100 percent self-consumption," the founder and CEO of Sun-Ways, Joseph Scuderi, told the Keystone-SDA news agency on request.
Quick installation
The installation is carried out mechanically with the help of a special hoist from Scheuchzer, which is Sun-Ways' partner in this project. This machine is capable of installing almost 1000 square meters of solar modules in just a few hours. Implementation is therefore quick and cost-effective, as the start-up company from Ecublens emphasizes.
The project in Buttes in Val-de-Travers involves a section of around one hundred meters on a line operated by Transports Publics Neuchâtelois (transN). It involves the installation of 48 solar modules.
The electrical connections are secured inside the panels. Cleanliness can be ensured by cleaning systems in the form of a cylindrical brush attached to the end of the train.
He dreams of installing this model all over the world, Scuderi continued. "But if you look at Switzerland alone, that's 5000 kilometers of railroad and tracks". He therefore estimates that almost 2.5 million panels could theoretically be installed in Switzerland.
