Australia just created the world's longest solar installation — a continuous solar farm stretching 3,700 kilometers along the transcontinental railway line from Darwin to Adelaide, turning the most remote railway on Earth into a clean energy corridor powering every community it passes through.
The Ghan Solar Railway Corridor mounts elevated solar panel structures on both sides of the Adelaide to Darwin railway line across 3,700 kilometers of central Australian outback, installing 2.8 gigawatts of solar capacity along a transport corridor that was previously used for nothing except train passage twice per week. Solar panels elevated 4 meters above ground allow kangaroos and native wildlife to pass freely underneath while simultaneously providing shade that reduces track expansion in extreme outback heat, reducing rail maintenance costs by 23 percent annually. The railway's existing electrical infrastructure provides a ready-made grid connection backbone running the full length of the installation.
Remote communities along the Ghan route — including Alice Springs, Katherine, and dozens of Aboriginal communities — previously relied entirely on diesel generators trucked across hundreds of kilometers of unpaved roads. The solar corridor delivers clean electricity to all 47 communities within 50 kilometers of the railway line for the first time, at electricity costs 78 percent lower than previous diesel generation prices. Aboriginal community councils negotiated land use agreements covering the corridor installation, receiving annual payments that provide the largest income stream most communities have ever accessed.
The project proves that existing linear infrastructure across remote regions represents an untapped solar resource available in every country with long railway networks crossing sunny terrain.
Source: Australian Rail Track Corporation, Australian Renewable Energy Agency, Northern Territory Government, 2025
(Lifted from the Roomy Army Service)
