A large solar panel park is being built in Flemish Brabant along the Leuven-Liège high-speed train line. It will be the first such park in Europe to be connected to the standardised overhead voltage of a high-speed rail line. Infrabel has also commissioned a new solar panel park in Avernas, Liège province, which will supply power to passing trains.
Climate & Environment
European first: Solar panel park to connect directly to overhead train lines
Published:
The project in Boutersem includes the design, construction and maintenance of the solar energy park with a capacity of approximately 2 megawatts peak, which corresponds to the annual energy consumption of 500 households.
“It will be the first park in Europe to be connected to the standardised overhead line voltage,” said Frédéric Petit of Infrabel, which manages Belgium’s rail infrastructure. “This could serve as an example for rail infrastructure managers abroad.” The energy produced will be fed directly into the electrical network and Infrabel’s technical installations.
It will be the first park in Europe to be connected to the standardised overhead line voltage
“Thanks to this project, unused land, particularly the railway embankments, will be converted into green energy embankments that will power the railway infrastructure and can be used by trains,” Petit said. An environmental permit has been granted. Work will start in the autumn and the park should be complete in 2027. Meanwhile, Infrabel’s first solar panel park in Wallonia was officially opened on Thursday. The park in Avernas-le-Bauduin is also next to the Leuven-Liège high-speed line and has 3,828 panels. This enables it to produce enough energy to power almost 500 domestic and international trains every week.
“What makes this park special is that it contains solar panels and wind turbines that are also connected to the grid,” said Benoît Gilson, CEO of Infrabel.
“When the weather is good, we use solar energy, and when the weather is not so good but it’s windy, we use wind energy. In addition, in a few months’ time, we will install batteries here to capture unused energy and feed it back into the grid.” The solar farm in Avernas is the second site with such a high peak capacity to be commissioned by Infrabel. A first site in Peerdsbos has been supplying power to the high-speed line between Antwerp and the Dutch border since 2011. Infrabel, which entrusted the implementation of the project to its subsidiary TUC RAIL, has invested approximately €2.5 million in Avernas.