Sun-Ways
Sun-Ways is a Swiss cleantech company developing removable solar power plants installed between railway tracks.
Founded
2021Sun-Ways is a Swiss cleantech company developing removable solar power plants installed between railway tracks.
Sun-Ways offers a removable solar power plant system installed directly between railway tracks, using standard photovoltaic panels laid by a dedicated railway machine at roughly 1,000 m2 per day. The panels withstand train passage up to 150 km/h and can be detached for track maintenance, leaving no footprint on the infrastructure.
Each kilometer of track can generate about 200 MWh per year, and the electricity can feed the public grid, the railway low-voltage network, or the traction energy network for locomotives. The company targets market entry from 2027 and has signed a collaboration agreement with SNCF for production data and operational feedback.
Railway solar addresses a growing scarcity of suitable land for large photovoltaic installations, particularly in densely populated or landscape-protected countries such as Switzerland. Europe holds more than 260,000 km of railways and the world over one million km, offering a large underused surface that requires no additional land acquisition.
Switzerland alone could generate roughly 1 TWh per year from panels between its roughly 5,000 km of track, covering about 30 percent of public transport electricity needs. With international delegations from France, Belgium, Israel, Indonesia, and South Korea already evaluating the technology, the addressable market extends well beyond Switzerland once the three-year Buttes pilot validates safety and economics.
Sun-Ways holds a patented system for mechanically installing and removing solar panels between railway rails, which no competing rail-solar approach has demonstrated at the same readiness level. Its dedicated railway machine, developed with Scheuchzer, lays roughly 1,000 m2 of panels per day, and the panels survive high-speed train passage up to 150 km/h while remaining fully removable for track maintenance.
The company benefits from strong Swiss ecosystem support, including Innosuisse funding, the cantons of Neuchatel and Vaud, the Solar Impulse Foundation label, and operational partnerships with SNCF, Romande Energie, Viteos, and TransN. This combination of patented technology and institutional backing gives it a first-mover position in railway ferrovoltaics.