The stretch of track near
Aldershot was today receiving 30kW from a nearby solar farm.
The renewable electricity will be
used to provide energy for the signalling and lights on Network Rail's Wessex
route.
It is hoped it can be the first
step in establishing the necessary infrastructure for trains that are directly
powered by solar energy.
Network Rail is making a big push
to move away from diesel-powered locomotives and is electrifying the rails to
reduce its carbon footprint.
The pilot scheme is the
brainchild of a joint project between the charity 10:10 Climate Action and
Imperial College London.
The research team behind it,
dubbed Riding Sunbeams, believes it to be the first example of solar energy
being used to power train lines anywhere in the world.
Leo Murray, Director of Riding
Sunbeams, said: 'Matchmaking the UK's biggest electricity user, the railways,
with the nation's favourite energy source, solar power, looks like the start of
the perfect relationship.
'Helping to get the railways off
fossil fuels in this way will cut running costs and benefit local communities at
the same time as helping to tackle the climate crisis.'
Stuart Kistruck, director of
route asset management for Network Rail's Wessex Route, said: 'We are proud to
be working with 10:10, Community Energy South and our other stakeholders to
deliver this exciting world-first project on the Wessex route.
'We have ambitions to roll this
technology out further across the network should this demonstrator project prove
successful so we can deliver a greener, better railway for our passengers and
the wider public.'
By the end of 2020, Riding
Sunbeams hopes to build and connect the world’s first ever full-scale community-
and commuter-owned solar farm to UK railways.
The project also estimates that
solar could power one fifth of the Merseyrail network in Liverpool, as well as
15 per cent of commuter routes in Kent, Sussex and Wessex.
Reducing the emissions of the
locomotive industry is something that is receiving a lot of attention and
funding from both the Government and private firms.
Hydrogen trains have recently
been developed which would slash emissions as the only product created would be
water.
These virtually silent marvels
emit no greenhouse gases and produce water vapour as their only exhaust.
A prototype version of the
vehicle, dubbed HydroFlex, was tested out in Long Marston, Warwickshire in June.
Carriage space in this
proof-of-concept version is currently taken up with the equipment needed to
power the train.
These virtually silent marvels
emit no greenhouse gases and produce water vapour as their only exhaust.
A prototype version of the
vehicle, dubbed HydroFlex, has been tested out in Long Marston, Warwickshire.
Carriage space in this
proof-of-concept version is currently taken up with the equipment needed to
power the train.
The technology has been added to
existing Class 319 trains in the prototype version, but theoretically can be
fitted to any train, old or new.
This means that no new trains
will have to be built to specifically incorporate the hydrogen drive system -
meaning existing trains can be recycled, further conserving precious resources.
The UK government is currently
developing the infrastructure to get hydrogen from renewable energy such as
windfarms, which would make it a completely green source of fuel in the future.
WHAT IS SOLAR POWER?
Solar power is the conversion of
energy from sunlight into electricity.
Two methods for generating solar
power exist.
Photovoltaics — the kind of solar
panel you might see built into a calculator — are capable of directly converting
light into electrical power.
In concentrated solar power
systems, however, mirrors or lenses are first used to collect the sunlight that
falls on a large area and focus it — creating heat that can be used to drive a
steam turbine and generate electricity.
The productivity of solar panels
is dependant on the sunlight they receive in a given location — a factor which
is dependant on both latitude and climate.
Optimum locations for solar farms
include the arid tropics and subtropics, with deserts lying at such low
latitudes often being cloudless and getting around 10 hours of sunlight each
day.
According to NASA, the eastern
part of the Sahara — the Libyan Desert — is the sunniest place on the Earth.
Solar power accounted for 1.7 per
cent of the world's electricity production in 2017, and has been growing at a
rate of 35 per cent each year.
Via Daily Mail