Renewable Energy and Rail

[TheIRO]

The Cliff Railway at CAT was opened in 1992 and was a innovative piece of engineering that runs on renewable energy. It combines old and new technologies and is an example of how modern-day travel can work in harmony with the environment.

How far do you think we can go into incorporating renewable energy across the railway network, if at all?

 

[DownSouth]

Swapping fossil fuel electricity for renewable electricity and increasing the use of electric traction would be the most obvious solution.

Solar/battery power for signals in remote areas is an off-the-shelf item that needs no R&D, only Ctrl+C Ctrl+V.

Addition of flywheel recovery units to future EMUs would be a major improvement allowing increased performance when departing stations without adding any extra load on the overhead wire system. Flywheel recovery units would make for far more efficient use of excess energy than regenerating into the overhead wires would, and could see significant gains without the fire risk of using batteries.

 

[L&Y Robert]

The Cliff Railway at CAT was opened in 1992 and was a innovative piece of engineering that runs on renewable energy.

The Lynton - Lynmouth cliff railway was opened in 1890 and that runs entirely on water power. It's still running today.