Credit: Railfuture

Well, 10% solar-powered – that’s the target. Of course solar has its variables, mainly weather conditions and hours of daylight. So is this ‘solution’ worth the bother and cost, or not? The era of batteries on train locomotives has also arrived – see ‘Adding a third dimension – battery power’ here.

How many times have we looked at clever innovation and wondered why on earth no one thought of doing it before?

Often the simplest of ideas seem to lead to the most elegant of engineering solutions, says RailEngineer.

The truth is, of course, that invention is only half of the story. Sometimes the right meeting of minds must happen before a bright idea can become a reality.

To the best of our knowledge, the direct supply of solar power to rail traction systems has never been done, anywhere in the world.

Now, thanks to a collaboration between Network Rail and a social enterprise scheme called Riding Sunbeams, the very first solar farm to directly supply power to trains has been switched on.

That’s right, not in a distant country with a hot climate and wall to wall blue skies, but right here in our cloudy UK, near Aldershot station to be precise. The new system went live on 23 August.

Riding Sunbeams is a joint venture between 10:10 Climate Action and Community Energy South. 10:10 is a registered charity on a mission to speed up action on climate change by inspiring more people to become involved, while Community Energy South was set up in 2013 as an umbrella organisation, enabling community organisations and local energy groups to grow as sustainable low carbon businesses.

Feasible

Behind the Riding Sunbeams project is a pretty simple idea. It is that solar farms could be installed next to the train tracks – on embankments, train sheds, nearby fields and industrial buildings – and that these could power the railway directly to provide traction power for the trains.

In 2017, the 10:10 charity brought together experts from the Energy Futures Lab at Imperial College London, Community Energy South and electrical engineering specialists Turbo Power Systems, to find out whether the idea was feasible, and the answer was yes.

It was estimated that solar traction power could realistically provide around 10 per cent of the energy needed to power trains on the UK’s 750V DC electrified routes.

Community energy, where local people own the renewable energy and benefit from it, is at the heart of this work. Riding Sunbeams has a mission to see community and commuter-owned solar farms powering the railways for the mutual benefit of the railway routes, the communities that host them and, of course, the planet. In other words, to have third-party funding contributing to the national rail network.

This is no madcap scheme; the idea has huge potential for metros, trams and heavy rail in the UK and around the world.

Network Rail purchases an awful lot of electricity. The potential to obtain even 10 per cent of the DC third rail electrified network’s energy requirements from renewable sources, and at a cheaper rate, was worthy of consideration.

Stuart Kistruck is Network Rail’s director asset management for the Wessex route. In 2017, he had attended a presentation by Riding Sunbeams. “Making use of solar energy, produced on our own land, seemed like such an obvious thing to do,” he said.

Full article here.

via Tallbloke’s Talkshop

https://ift.tt/2K8Al62

November 10, 2019 at 04:22AM