Comment on Solar panels between railway tracks?

lnxtx@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

• Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  This is Switzerland, not India. Also, it’s a test. It’s designed to find out exactly how serious those problems are and if they prevent the system from being effective.

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  • Valmond@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Next test: solar panel on the bottom of the ocean.

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    • Spacehooks@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      Subnautica entered the chat.

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    • Rooskie91@discuss.online ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      Cause those things are similar!!

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      • Valmond@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

        Putting solar panels between rails is as stupid as solar roadways. There is nothing to be gained and just lots of hurdles to overcome to make it as good as a normal solar panel on a roof or on a stick or on a wall.

        Tell me, why on earth would you put solar panels between rails?

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  • Disaster@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Is this the same bunch of people that wanted to make solar roads/bike lanes too?

    I could see a solar road working with some kind of passive heating medium circulated underneath but even then, the maintenance on that would be a nightmare. We can barely maintain all the roads we have already, and that’s just goopy rocks and grading.

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• Zachariah@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  They make a better roof over the tracks that the train passes under than being on the ground. They could even be tilted to better face the sun.

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  • Wanderer@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    This but for cycling pathways in cities (no cars allowed).

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• 4am@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  There are “defect detectors” on railways to warn engineers when their train has a chain, air hose, etc dangling and dragging along the ground - which is a potential for accidents of many varieties.

  I guess now you can replace that with trains that automatically stop when the Katamari of dislodged solar panels eventually builds enough mass to force a car off the rails.

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• Mitchie151@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Surely the maintenance of such problems would be very easy though, given it’s already on rails you could run a carriage with washing machinery underneath to clean these occasionally. Interested to see how serious the deterioration over time is due to the grime.

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• sonori@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Don’t forget that maintaining all this means people working directly in the track trying to fix high voltage electrical issues while dodging trains and hoping dispatch doesn’t forget about them, or that ballast(the gravel between the ties) needs to be renewed regularly, much less all the things like realignment and rail grinding that use specialized machinery that needs to go right in the space between the rails.

  This definitely feels like the sort of idea that some high level manager came up with and no one with any ground level experience was allowed to contribute to.

  Look, if there really is absolutely no possible available space, like say desert, farmland, roofs, parking lots, yards, fences, well just put the panels up on a simple metal frame over the railway, maybe even integrate the catenary hangers if your feeling daring.

  This at least provides some benefit to running the railway by keeping snow and leaves off the tracks to some extent while also keeping the panels out of the way of running the railroad.

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  • zante@lemmy.wtf ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Yes because they never close the lines for maintenance or repairs

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    • sonori@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      Typically not for more than a few hours when it comes to in service track, and management actively despises those maintenance windows even when it’s necessary to the continued existence of the track.

      There is a reason why even when the entire track and ballest on a main line are wiped out by a natural disaster it will usually be up and running again in three to four days.

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