Italy-based Greenrail Group has been testing PV on railway sleepers along a railway line between the towns of Modena and Sassuolo, in Emilia Romagna, Italy, since 2018. “We designed the photovoltaic sleepers following the UNI 10349 standard,” CEO Emanuele Occhipinti told pv magazine. “These prototypes are part of an experimental section that has demonstrated positive results in terms of effectiveness.”

Occhipinti said that the sleepers are easy to assemble and clean.“Cleaning 1 km of solar railways takes only a few minutes, using a trolley with brushes and water jet mounted underneath, allowing the cleaning of large surfaces in a short time and saving resources and time compared to cleaning a standard PV plant,” he explained.