Can solar PV power railways? (RailwayTechnology)

Shining example: will solar PV power the railways of the future? How will our expanding railways be powered in the future? And are electrified networks powered solely by renewable energy the answer? Demand for traction power on the world’s rail networks is escalating and many traditional grids are at full, or nearly full capacity. Here’s a look to a groundbreaking project using solar panels fitted to tracks and innovations being trialled in India.

Credit: Amit kg / Shutterstock.com

In 2014 in Bern, Switzerland, to relatively little fanfare, Bankset Energy installed the first-ever solar panel on a rail track, setting in motion a project that could transform how railways around the world are powered – and deliver gigawatts (GW) of clean energy back into the grid and people’s homes.

Four years later, in June 2018, Bankset, a renewables investor based in London, began construction work on the installation of 200MW of solar PV panels on 1,000km of rail track in Saxony, Germany.

The panels made from silicone and aluminium can be attached to the existing concrete, wood and steel sleepers that make up many of the world’s rail networks, without the need for alterations.

Bankrolled by an initial €10m funding package from Bankset, and European, US and Chinese partners and a recent $2.1bn share offering, the company has extended the trial to twelve countries including the US, the UK, China and Australia, and is targeting a further 165 – which it claims would constitute the largest solar installation ever undertaken.

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2 comments

  1. Great article but it missed that both the Riding Sunbeams report and Bankset Group plans include battery storage to power the trains at night,however the new 2019 Riding Sunbeams Before Dawn report by Leo Murray and Ollie Pendered favours a AC grid to DC 3rd rail connection over batteries,I wonder if the Ostebahn Eastern Railway in Austria solar farm that opened last year using a new type of inverter to connect the DC solar panels to the AC overhead cables is the reason Leo Murray has decided AC to DC rather than DC only.Riding Sunbeams Ltd is planning a 100 solar panel pilot between London and Weymouth and with Transport for Wales to electrify train lines north of Cardiff with community owned Solar and Wind farms.
    The Riding Sunbeams report wasn`t just published by Imperial College,London but was written by Nathaniel Bottrell Imperial College and Leo Murray climate change charity 10:10.Transport for London has embraced the ideas in the report and is studying where to install trackside solar farms and battery storage.
    Italian Greenrail company has also developed solar and piezo sleepers that work in tunnels.Forbes article in 2015 claimed that London`s transport authority (TfL) has expressed an interest.Greenrail estimates the piezo sleepers on London Underground,Paris and Madrid metros with 23-27 trains per hour can generate up to 300kW/h every 1 km of track and 10-20 tph up to 120kW/h (source Sleepers go green in railjournal).
    Solutionary Rail proposal by Bill Moyer and Patrick Mazza in the USA plan to electrify American railroads,upgrade the tracks for high speed 125 mph trains and install overhead power lines to connect large and small solar,wind and hydro plants including ones owned by Native American tribes to the national grid.
    `Railway Solar` May Be a Sweet Spot for Green Transport article by Tam Hunt October 28 2015 on greentechmedia looked at using solar canopies including ones installed over the tracks to power trains.I wonder if solar canopies can be used because perhaps canopies will reduce the amount of snow,leaves (I have signed petitions to stop Network Rail cutting down trees in Brockley Rise and Grove Park,London)and suns heat (which buckled rails in last summers heatwave) that falls on the lines,all three caused delays and cancellations to trains last year.If glass or clear plastic walls can be cheaply added to solar canopies and turn them into a greenhouse type structures that will eliminate the problems of snow and leaves.
    Episode World`s First Solar Train – Byron Bay Railroad Company Fully Charged youtube Robert Llewellyn (also in Red Dwarf) shows a train in Australia with pv panels on the roof and at a station.Engie Vehicle To Grid Fully Charged showed a DC microgrid with solar and v2g from electric cars,DC microgrids could be directly connected to DC rail lines.
    As the green party and some in extinction rebellion object to HS2 I think HS2 Ltd has made a fatal mistake not having a plan to power the trains 100% by renewables (the story in Sunday Telegraph that HS2 plans on using onshore wind farms must be false as HS2 boss denied it to transport committee and onshore wind is banned in England which is why Riding Sunbeams Ltd will only use wind in Wales) HS2 Ltd should of gone green and pointed to the Transform Scotland report claim that HSTs had cut carbon emissions between London and Scotland 2005-15 by 680,000 tonnes.

  2. I ran across a salesperson for this concept at the New England Railway Club expo. So it is definitely moving forward. They were building a trial section, at the Port of Fort Lauderdale if I recall correctly.

    I got quite excited at the concept. The obvious potential for better use of the railway real estate made sense on first encounter.

    Discussions with other railroaders brought up the issue of dust covering the panels as tracks are a pretty dirty environment. In addition to snow, as the previous commenter mentioned. (And no, covering tracks with glass is not cheap). I don’t know enough to understand how serious this would be; perhaps passing trains would blow the dust off?

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