AUSTRIAN Railways (ÖBB) will this year build the country’s first agri-pv installation to supply emissions-free power to the national rail network.

A bank of solar panels, to be installed at a 6ha site at Thalsdorf in Carinthia canton, will generate up to 15GWh of green electricity that will be fed directly into the national rail network’s 15kV 16.7Hz ac power supply via the catenary of an adjacent railway line.

The grassland the photo-voltaic (pv) panels will stand on can simultaneously be used as pasture for 6000 chickens and 60 sheep and will be enhanced with other conservation measures, including tree planting and cultivation of native flower species, to increase biodiversity.

The amount of electricity generated at Thalsdorf is the equivalent of that required to power 3800 Railjet journeys between Vienna and Salzburg. The installation, that is due to start supplying power by the end of this year, will help ÖBB achieve its target to be 80% self-sufficient in green traction power by 2030.

 “Since 2018, we have been using 100% green traction electricity,” says ÖBB-Infrastructure board member Mr Johann Pluy. “And since 2019 we have been supplying all buildings, facilities and container terminals with electricity from 100% renewable energy sources.”

“With this innovative system in Thalsdorf, we are not only increasing our own production of green traction power, we are also creating a dual use for the environment and agriculture,” he says.

ÖBB pioneered the world's first solar power plant for traction current on a brownfield site at Wilfleinsdorf in Lower Austria in 2015.