this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2026
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solar fricken railroads?
This idea makes a thousand times more sense because they're not trying to replace the load-bearing surface with an expanse of expensive and delicate glass, they're just filling in otherwise unused space
Instead they just put it in a place where they have to be disconnected and removed to reballast or tamp the permanent way, or for railhead grinding, or for sleeper replacement, or for any maintenance task that needs access between the tracks...
rocks, sand, parts, snow, ice all land between those tracks.
The article mentions reinforcing the panels and also adding "brooms" to the underside of the trains. I don't know how it will shake out but it's possible with the brooms they get cleaned more regularly than rooftop ones. Perhaps it will be important to leave gaps so that rocks and train parts can fall down between them as they are swept off (thus hopefully limiting damage to a single panel)
You know what makes more sense? Putting them on homes. Solar railways are a pointless attempt at some money from the company involved. They are not practical.
This one makes a lot of sense though. You have a built in way to clean the panels through the trains, the panels are protected by the rails, and theoretically nothing should be putting weight on them (in practice the weight of a human or maybe a cow - at most)
Plus railroads last a very long time. Basically until we rip them up
We don't need a solution to transition away from fossil fuels, we need lots of solutions. We really should be putting up solar panels anywhere and everywhere they will survive for at least a few years. Even if it's 70% as productive as a properly angled panel, so what? We don't need to min max here
We need production ramped up and capacity online as fast as possible. If solar railways become a new source of demand, that means more investment in both
Think a little harder.
I agree we should be putting solar panels on roofs. I disagree that this railway solar idea is impractical. If this article is to be believed they have already demonstrated effective operation at pilot scale. They mentioned some challenges specific to this application, but they also seem to have compensated for them
The challenges are what makes them impractical. The company has investment it needs to repay, so it obviously wants to tell you it's not a big deal. It's much more cost efficient and solar efficient to install them on roofs of homes and building, create shelters from them, or simply just make a field of them. Things like "solar railways" should be a last resort, after we have already covered the obvious solutions.
I don't think it's a slam dunk case. There's lots of costs associated with installing solar on a roof that may not apply here. I think someone would have to do a comparative lifecycle analysis