Case study of
#00143 Place PV between and on railway tracks — removable panels or solar sleepers
Modena–Sassuolo line, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
#00144
Implementer
Greenrail S.r.l. (with Ferrovie Emilia-Romagna)
Timeline
Since Jan 1, 2018
Location
Description
The "solar sleeper" variant of the rail PV concept: Greenrail integrates PV cells into replacement sleepers cast partly from recycled tyres and plastic (~35 t of waste repurposed per km), so the sleeper itself generates electricity. Companion versions add piezoelectric harvesting and sensor/diagnostics packages. Prototype sleepers have been tested on the Modena–Sassuolo line since 2018, designed to the UNI 10349 solar standard. Cleaning is done with a brush-and-water trolley. The company claims 35–44 MWh per km per year, usable for stations, level crossings, and signals. Independent long-run verification is thin, and there is no evidence of large-scale commercial rollout years after the pilot.
Metrics
2Funding
Lessons learned
- Integrating PV into the sleeper couples the generator to a load-bearing track component, so maintenance or panel failure implicates track structure — the opposite of Sun-Ways' removable approach, and a key trade-off to evaluate before adoption.
- Headline MWh/km figures are largely implementer-stated; independent multi-year measurement is needed before using these numbers for procurement decisions.
- A pilot running since 2018 without visible commercial scale-up suggests real barriers between demonstration and deployment that a replicator should investigate before committing.
- Recycled-material sleepers add a circular-economy co-benefit (waste diversion) independent of the solar function, which may open additional funding avenues.
Sources
2Documented Jul 13, 2026
History
· 1Arnaud Gissinger · 5h ago · approved by Arnaud Gissinger 5h ago