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Chewie @slrpnk.net

4mo ago

Solar panels between railway tracks?

www.euronews.com Solar panels will be rolled onto Swiss railway tracks ‘like a carpet’

After long delays, the removable PV system will finally be tested on a western track next spring.

Solar panels will be rolled onto Swiss railway tracks ‘like a carpet’

I'm all for putting solar panels all over the place, but won't these get dusty and oily and need loads of cleaning after trains pass over?

Also, costing €623,000 over three years sounds rather expensive for just 100m (although that roughly equates to 11KW).

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92 comments

you have to keep the panels clean in order to work. this is not a great position to do so
- Hopper cars lose coal and ore all the time
  
  This is Switzerland, outside of a small number of corridors the majority of tracks see virtually nothing but passenger trains.
  
  Trains with hoppers are not present on all railways though.
  
  But these solar panels will be present on those with hoppers.
  
  i'd be more worried about about smudgy stuff. they get dusty, then it rains and the panel is covered in a film of dirt. bird shit on solar panels is already plaguing home users
- could trains have some kind of mechanism that might help? physical contact seems too much, maybe a blower?
  
  I'm sure enough air is moved simply from the train moving by, but there will probably still be rocks and stuff flying around
  
  won't really help against bird poop and such

92 comments