As the demand for renewable energy continues to grow, so does the need for space to generate it. But large solar fields don’t just appear out of nowhere, they require vast areas of land. Land that could have been used for agriculture. Land that belongs to wildlife. Land that forms the natural landscapes we are trying to protect in the first place.

In many regions, installing solar farms means clearing fields, cutting into open landscapes, or covering areas that once supported plants, insects, and biodiversity. Ironically, in the pursuit of green energy, we sometimes end up sacrificing parts of the very nature we want to preserve.

Rooftops help reduce this pressure, but they cannot carry the full load. So the real question is: how do we continue expanding solar energy without taking more land from nature?

What if, instead of searching for new space, we used infrastructure that already exists?
What if we placed solar panels directly on train tracks?

Recycling infrastructure

The Swiss start-up Sun-Ways is doing exactly that: testing an innovative system that installs solar panels directly between train rails. The project takes place in Buttes and is the first in the world to operate on train lines that remain open to traffic.

The idea came from Joseph Scuderi, who in 2020 was waiting for a train and wondered why the space between rails was not used to generate energy. Five years later, 100 meters of solar panels now line the tracks.

“We installed solar panels as we would on the roof of a house,” Scuderi said at the unveiling of the project on April 24. With steady rain falling, it was not an ideal day for inaugurating a solar power plant, but Scuderi was happy. Getting this far, he says, “has been a miracle.”

Simple and practical

The panels can be quickly installed and removed with a special machine developed by the railway company Scheuchzer, up to 1,000 square meters in just a few hours. They can even be cleaned by a brush attached to the train itself. This makes the system easy to use, even on tracks that stay fully operational.

More energy!

According to Sun-Ways, if all suitable railway lines in Switzerland were equipped with these panels, around 2 percent of the country’s electricity could come from solar energy generated on the rails, enough to power about 300,000 households. Other countries are watching closely: South Korea, Spain, Romania, Indonesia, Japan, and the United States have all shown interest in the project.

A fresh perspective

By showing that even the space between train tracks can generate energy, this project challenges our fixed ideas about where sustainability is possible. It invites a new way of looking at the world: where are the underused places in our surroundings that we could use for a greener future?

Sun-Ways proves that fighting climate change does not always require huge sacrifices. Sometimes the solutions lie literally beneath our feet. There are many more places, for example parking lots. We have to take advantage of the ugly spaces that are already there, waiting for solar energy to be installed. This way we do not have to disturb Mother Nature.

That realization makes the climate challenge feel less overwhelming and instead closer and simpler.

What do you think?

What is a place we could also use in a sustainable way?
Share our story, with your answer.

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