Swiss startup Sun-ways is planning to build a 18 kW pilot PV system between the racks of a 100-m linear section of a railway line in the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel.
Why not just make solar roofs over things like parking lots and sidewalks? That way it can provide cover and power, you can use off the shelf panels, and they are unlikely to get damaged.
And you can repair them without needing to shut down a whole railway. All these projects to put solar panels in novel places are totally pointless and solving a problem that doesn’t exist.
Yeah until we literally run out of roofs, fields, parking lots, and fucking ocean space and are contemplating a fucking Dyson sphere I really don’t understand these projects.
Why not just make solar roofs over things like parking lots and sidewalks? That way it can provide cover and power, you can use off the shelf panels, and they are unlikely to get damaged.
I doubt they’re doing this and only this.
And you can repair them without needing to shut down a whole railway. All these projects to put solar panels in novel places are totally pointless and solving a problem that doesn’t exist.
Yeah until we literally run out of roofs, fields, parking lots, and fucking ocean space and are contemplating a fucking Dyson sphere I really don’t understand these projects.
parking lots would require the government to own said parking lots. its why you often see them at schools (because its government funded)
Covering parking lots is expensive and you lose spots to supports and there’s the inevitable car hitting those supports.
Putting panels between rail lines doesn’t need a structure so it should be far cheaper and easier to install and fix, even if they aren’t ideal.
They will get dirty very fast, either from dirt thrown around by passing trains, or by the brake dust.
It shouldn’t be too hard to clean them with something running on the tracks, but it does seem less than ideal.