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Trains in Switzerland Are Now Running Over Solar Panels in a First-of-Its-Kind Test
(www.zmescience.com)
this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2026
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It's not about "efficiency" in this form. It's scale. Efficiency prioritization is useful ontop of a single home, Scale prioritization is when you are laying down a million+ panels.
Once those are installed, they're pretty much permanent with minimum maintenance, and will keep providing power for decades.
Not disagreeing, genuinely curious and hoping you know more than I do. Haha
You say minimum maintenance, but it seems like this would require almost constant maintenance to me. Animals shitting on them, trains blowing dust, rocks, shards of metal onto them, scratching their surfaces and diminishing their use over time by blocking sunlight from constant debris and scratching. Would it not make more sense to measure the height of the lowest bridge/tunnel on the track's route, and put these on a platform at that height? At that point, they could be angled, or even potentially have those motors that track the sun, while keeping them safe from damage from flying pebbles and dirt, and providing shade for the train to run under? I doubt the shade thing matters that much, but assuming these are passengers trains (I'm a USian, so I've only ever heard of passenger trains in folklore and western movies), it could limit the amount of air conditioning the train needed to keep passengers cool, perhaps?
Imagine a street cleaning car. Now imagine that, as a light truck attachment. Now imagine that, attached to any train that goes over the tracks.
Or, just imagine, Something like this: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/High-Temperature-Resistant-Small-Size-Rail_1601599861898.html
I'd still say these are going to pick up enough scratches to effectively block out most light. Or, at least, that's the way my brain wants to think about it. Like the way headlights get dim over time because the plastic or glass casing picks up scratching and makes them hazy/foggy/look like sea glass. I'm not trying to suggest that's what will happen so much as trying to understand why it wouldn't. Even with the street sweeper hanging under the cow catcher, the bristles of the broom seem like they'd scratch the surface over time and limit light. I'm very certain much, much smarter people than me designed this and have accounted for those issues. I just... Don't grok how lol