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Switzerland authorizes removable PV plant on railway track
(www.pv-magazine.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
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:
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.
Maybe they only put them on the "Off Road" Tracks of the Street Trains. They usually have a covered bottom (like Cars) to avoid debris flinging into its soft parts.... but that will only solve one Issue of the many MANY there are. (Lots of Ifs here)