Korea National Railway said this week that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Qcells at the company’s solar factory in Jincheon, Chungcheongbuk province.

The agreement aims to expand renewable energy use across railway infrastructure, including stations, depots, tracksides and idle land.

Executives from the two companies toured the Jincheon production facility to assess solar module specifications and reliability for railway applications and to explore technical cooperation, according to an online statement.

The agreement follows recent discussions at the ninth Business R&D Forum held in January under Korea National Railway leadership. The forum, launched in July 2024, is a CEO-led platform aimed at commercializing advanced technologies in the railway sector.

Under the terms of the agreement, the two sides will cooperate on domestic solar module development, on-site technical validation in railway environments and research exchange to support commercialization.

Lee Sung-hae, president of Korea National Railway, said the agreement would expand renewables deployment across railway operations and create a pathway for applying advanced energy technologies throughout the sector.

Korea National Railway said it will continue linking technologies identified through the Business R&D Forum to railway operations and expand collaboration with industry, academia and research institutions.

The Qcells agreement is aligned with the global push to expand solar on rail infrastructure. Over the past year, East Japan Railway began testing perovskite modules on railway noise barriers, while China Railway Construction Corp. started working on a 3 GW TOPCon module procurement framework. In Europe, Germany’s rail operator recently claimed that the national network offers 37.6 GW of solar potential, while France began trackside PV trials earlier this month.