NEUCHÂTEL, Switzerland — Imagine your morning train commute powered by the sun’s rays—right from the tracks beneath your wheels.
That’s no fantasy for Swiss start-up Sun‑Ways, who have started to roll out solar panels “like carpet” on active railway lines, starting with a three‑year pilot on a 100‑metre stretch in Neuchâtel that started spring 2025.
This innovative project aims to generate clean energy by utilizing existing railway infrastructure. The panels, pre-assembled and mounted on a specialized train, are rolled out like a carpet between the tracks.
This system allows for easy removal for track maintenance.
The Solar-Fluffin’ Train
Sun‑Ways and EPFL (the Swiss federal technology institute) patented a removable solar array to handle inevitable track maintenance.
Here’s how it works:
A specially designed Scheuchzer rail train—think “Roomba for railroads”—uses a piston mechanism to unfurl one‑metre‑wide photovoltaic panels assembled at a Swiss factory.
It can roll out up to 1,000 m² of solar carpet per day, then just as swiftly roll them back up when track crews arrive.
“This will be the first time that solar panels will be installed on a railway track with trains that pass over them,” says Sun‑Ways CEO Joseph Scuderi. “It’s just like unrolling carpet.”
From Red Tape to Red Carpet
It wasn’t smooth sailing—last year the Federal Office of Transport shooed them off the rails as a “precautionary” measure.
After ten months of intense prototype testing, Sun‑Ways snagged the green light. They’ll mount 48 panels across a 100‑metre section operated by canton-owned transN.
Power to the People (and Their Toasters)
Electricity harvested by the trackside PV cells will feed directly into the power grid, lighting up nearby homes—because wiring it into the railway’s operations would be, as engineers politely put it, “complicated.”
Down the line, Sun‑Ways envisions scaling to Switzerland’s entire 5,317 km rail network.
That’s solar carpet coverage the size of 760 football fields, capable of generating 1 TWh per year—about 2% of the nation’s energy consumption.
Global Track Record
Sun‑Ways co‑founder Baptiste Danichert notes, “There are over a million kilometres of railway lines in the world. We believe that 50% of the world’s railways could be equipped with our system.”
Spain, Romania, and South Korea are already in talks.
Glare, Cracks, and Snowball Fights
Not everyone is cheering.
The International Union of Railways frets about micro‑cracks, fire hazards, and glare distracting drivers.
Sun‑Ways counters with anti-reflection filters, durable panels tougher than grandma’s fruitcake, and built‑in sensors to monitor performance.
Trains could sport little brushes to sweep off dirt, and a future “de‑icing” system is in the works to melt snow and ice off those horizontal arrays.
Why It Matters
As Europe races to meet climate goals, Sun‑Ways taps untapped real estate—unused track beds—rather than carving up pristine land for solar farms.
Roadsides, reservoirs, and fields are already getting the PV treatment; now the rails join the renewable revolution.
If successful, the “solar carpet” could flip every rail line into a power-generating powerhouse.
So, next time you board a Swiss train, give a nod to the rails beneath—your commute might just be fueled by sunshine unrolled like a red carpet, leading to a cleaner, greener future!
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