100kW Grid Connected PV-Installation Along Rail Infrastructure in Southern Switzerland — A Feasibility Study

Abstract

The potential of large grid connected PV-installations using existing infrastructures along motorways and railway lines without the need of extra land resources in Switzerland was evaluated in 1987/1988. A first 100kW pilot installation on the soundbarriers of a motorway in the Swiss Alps was constructed in 1989.

Using existing infrastructures for PV-installations will help to reduce the unit price of electrical energy. The plan to build 3 more similar 100kW installations will demonstrate reductions in engineering and product costs.

As a follow-up to this first installation, the authors describe the feasibility of a second installation on the district heating pipeline along a railway line near Locarno in southern Switzerland. A preliminary study of the electromagnetic interference between the DC PV-installation and the nearby high voltage electric railway line is also being carried out at a test site. Insights gained from this preliminary study and from the conduction and operation of the first installation on the soundbarriers along the Motorway Chur-Bellinzona (N13) will influence the specifications of components for the second 100kW grid-connected PV-installation.