The tunnel (pictured left) was originally built for the highspeed rail link between Antwerp and Amsterdam, to protect the nearby Peerds woodland from the damaging effects of rail traffic. Along the way, the two municipalities of Schoten and Brasschaat decided to team up with Solar Power Systems, a company based in Schoten, to use the tunnel for the production of solar energy as well. The project also included solar power experts Enfinity and the rail infrastructure agency Infrabel. The project cost €15.7 million.

The solar panels will generate about 3,300 megawatt hours of electricity in a year and will power trains passing through the tunnel, as well as providing energy to rail infrastructure, including the central station in Antwerp. Every year, 4,000 trains will be powered by the panels. It is estimated the power produced will mean a reduction of 2,400 tonnes in Infrabel’s carbon dioxide emissions for a year.

“Trains running on green energy travel completely normally,” said a spokesperson for Infrabel. “Passengers won’t notice any difference to a normal train.”

Nuclear train less popular

A train carrying nuclear waste travelled across Flanders from Borssele in the Netherlands to La Hague in northern France, despite legal attempts by the municipal councils of Ghent and of Mortsel, Antwerp province, to stop it, as well as protests by Greenpeace.

The two councils had gone to court as the train was scheduled to cross their territories, presenting “too great a risk to a heavily populated area”, they argued. Ghent tried to get an immediate injunction, but, according to the court, there was no urgency to the case.

Trains have previously carried nuclear waste on the same route without protest, and only last month another train carried nuclear material through Ghent on its way to the Belgoprocess plant in Dessel, Antwerp province. Ghent filed its request for an injunction on 3 June, although news reports had reported the transport a month before. “The plaintiffs created their own urgency by not paying enough attention,” the court ruled.

The Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (FANC) denied there was any risk. “The contents of the transport are dangerous, but the packaging is resistant to accidents,” a spokesperson said. The risk, she said, was “negligible”. FANC measured the radioactivity of the train when it entered Belgian territory and found levels to be under the legal limits.

According to Greenpeace, the train contained the same amount of radioactive material as was released in the Chernobyl disaster. Greenpeace protestors stopped the train by blockading the rails at Essen, near the Dutch border. All train traffic in the area was delayed for a time. About 10 demonstrators were detained.