[Aboutplants]

What are the economics of this? Cost to install vs other available options? Durability will certainly be an issue I’m sure. Genuinely curious and not because I think it’s a bad idea. I want solar on all underutilized areas, I just prefer low hanging fruit from a cost perspective at the current time.

[LaurensBER]

I imagine that the cost to install is fairly low since train tracks require regular monitoring and maintenance so it's fairly cheap to add the installation and maintenance on top of the existing schedule.

The manufacturer claims that durability should not be an issue. Time will tell.

[tryagainian]

Placing a cover over the area between the tracks makes it much more difficult to inspect the ties (sleepers) and ballast.

[LaurensBER]

I'm not an expert but I think the SBB is already pretty good at handling this. I think they already run measuring wagons (Oberbaumesswagen) with grond penetrating reader and ultrasonic measurement and use flow sensors to monitor drainage.

I would expect that the solar panels impact the efficiency at least somewhat but apparently not enough to cause real and enough issues for the SBB or perhaps they see ways to improve this in the future.

[inglor_cz]

Yes, worsened inspection is a non-trivial problem. Very high quality sleepers (I wouldn't expect any other kind in Switzerland) mitigate this, but copying such approach in other countries could spell trouble.

[jillesvangurp]

This might be exactly what you are asking for: low cost and low hanging fruit.

On paper, this should be pretty cheap. Normally, you need some mounting infrastructure to put the panels on, land preparation, etc. In this case, the train track provides the supporting infrastructure. You can bring in the panels via train wagons. Installation should be pretty quick and straightforward. And for cleaning, you could just do that from a rail wagon as well. Not having to truck in anything seems like it should be a big bonus here.

Durability might actually be fine. Solar panels are pretty reliable. And it's not like the train is in direct contact with the panels. The vibrations might be a challenge but presumably that would have shown up in the trials. It's something you could engineer solutions for. And so what if a small amount of panels fail?

[whazor]

Another issue with solar deployment is that there needs to be power cables that can consume the electricity.

But a train company practically always has running trains when the sun is shining. So they wouldn’t need to worry about disabling and losing money on the panels.

The real challenge is economically connecting the panels to a rail substation.

[datadrivenangel]

Seems likely that safe access for maintenance makes this unappealing economically. Likely easier to have wider rail right of way and then put a panel farm on the side.

[tryagainian]

With the added benefit of being able to mount the tracks at an angle, and the added disadvantage of occupying area near the tracks that is occasionally used for maintenance equipment.

And getting approval to widen the right of way, where it’s even physically possible, and issues around flora suppression.