Solar powered trains

[Porty]

An interesting programme on the World Service this afternoon re solar power and trains in Australia, India and the UK. Available on BBC Sounds - search for People Fixing the World or look at the schedule (1506 on 24 Nov).

 

[PG]

Pity it wasn't on television because then I'd have said:
A-ha The Sun Always Shines On T.V.

I'll get my coat...

 

[D365]

i still don’t get the fixation with solar on moving vehicles. The energy that they generate isn’t going to compensate for the added mass that they bring, let alone make a net contribution.

 

[Bald Rick]

The ‘Riding sunbeams’ initiative in this country is about static solar power generation next to the railway. I must admit to being highly sceptical of this at first, as you need roughly 5 acres of solar panels to power one 4 car unit, and of course it doesn’t help much at night.

However, having looked into it a bit more it is quite clever, and particularly useful on D.C. electrified areas. Having a reasonably sized D.C. generation plant close to a reasonably sized D.C. power demand helps avoid all the costs that solar farms incur in connecting to the Grid, including dealing with phase imbalances etc. This makes medium scale local solar generation much cheaper than buying power from the grid. Ultimately it may only deliver a few % of the power draw, but every little helps.