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.
The cleanliness of the panels isn’t actually as big a deal as it’s made out to be. Like yeah, they can’t be completely obscured, but you’d be surprised at how fucking filthy they can be and still make juice. Or half-or more- covered with trees, or other shade.
Right now, my panels are covered in enough crap I really should hose them off, and they’re still kicking 20 amps. So ahhh… fuck it. Maybe it’ll rain and I won’t have to.
Same with cloudy days-sometimes I get more power on cloudy days because the panels don’t get at hot. Hell, some streetlights put out enough light to harvest energy from-but they’re largely getting replaced with LED’s. Sad face?
I expect with the type of traffic going on between rails, these will need vanishingly little maintenance. I hope it goes well
The cleanliness of the panels isn’t actually as big a deal as it’s made out to be. Like yeah, they can’t be completely obscured, but you’d be surprised at how fucking filthy they can be and still make juice. Or half-or more- covered with trees, or other shade.
Right now, my panels are covered in enough crap I really should hose them off, and they’re still kicking 20 amps. So ahhh… fuck it. Maybe it’ll rain and I won’t have to.
Same with cloudy days-sometimes I get more power on cloudy days because the panels don’t get at hot. Hell, some streetlights put out enough light to harvest energy from-but they’re largely getting replaced with LED’s. Sad face?
I expect with the type of traffic going on between rails, these will need vanishingly little maintenance. I hope it goes well