Solar freakin Railway Sleepers!

[dan_b]

https://raillynews-com.cdn.ampproject.o ... epers/amp/

I can't quite work out if this is a completely insane, expensive/kWp and prone-to-failure idea, or a good way to get power out of more space that has already been turned into industrial use?

[AE-NMidlands]

I would check that it wasn't posted on April 1st! Although cast iron brake blocks and the dust they generated have gone - and regen braking cuts out disc wear - there is still a lot of wheel and rail wear debris, so they will get filthy pdq. They even have rail-grinding trains to get the rail-head back to its design shape, so they must throw a ton of grindings out per km!

Besides, maintaining a railway is difficult enough anyway, without fragile things being put in the way. Apparently a recent bad derailment was down to poor track condition... is a german news report about it.
There is little enough time to do track work as it is, so to have to take them out the way first would definitely be unwelcome!
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[Mart]

Yeah, can't help thinking this one is similar to the solar roadways idea, which is a cool idea, but impractical and uneconomical. So here we have the panels not being touched by the traffic, but I can't help thinking as AE-NMidlands says that they will get filthy. Perhaps also vulnerable to damage if mounted as shown in the article.

Pretty sure round here, a certain group of not really travelling folk, will nick em all.

[Oldgreybeard]

I would have thought that it makes more sense to fit normal ground mounted arrays on embankments, rather then this seemingly daft idea. Might well get a double benefit if embankment mounted panels suppress some of the plant growth, so they don't need to do as much trimming to keep the tracks free from leaves in the autumn.

I do often wonder what goes through the minds of people that come up with impractical ideas like this. A friend has the view that they are usually investment scams, intended to get loads of funding from gullible investors that the company that comes up with the idea can walk away with when the impracticalities are revealed.

[billi]

well sofar its just a Test idea for the future of the Deutschen Bahn to only use renewable Electicity in 15 years

The British company involved thinks that the German railway lanes has the potential to replace 5 Nuclear power plants

[smegal]

Surely these will end up like every other track side PV. Knackered and/or vandalized.

[AE-NMidlands]

well so far its just a Test idea for the future of the Deutschen Bahn to only use renewable Electicity in 15 years.
The British company involved thinks that the German railway lines has the potential to replace 5 Nuclear power plants

That might be true (based on railway land area and insolation) but they probably know nothing about railways... except that they have noticed that the railway has land with no trains above it for most of the time.
Just think about the reality of it: compare the cleanliness of a railway track with your roof and guess which will keep generating longer - then think about the practicalities of heavy maintainance of the track. It's barking.
Cutting and embankment sides would be a far better option, but the panels will still be covered in very tough grime in no time. (That's if they are not nicked first.) Get on with track maintainance: concentrate on the day job!
Sorry.
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[billi]

i did not say that it makes total sense to me , just was reading the german news about it