The Energy Mix

Top Menu

  • About
  • Latest Digest/Archive
  • Partners
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact

Main Menu

  • News Archive by Category
    • Climate & Society
      • Carbon Levels & Measurement
      • Carbon-Free Transition
      • Climate Action/”Blockadia”
      • Climate Denial & Greenwashing
      • Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations
      • Culture, Curiosities, & Humour
      • Demographics
      • Energy Politics
      • Energy Subsidies
      • Energy/Carbon Pricing & Economics
      • Finance & Investment
      • First Peoples
      • Insurance & Liability
      • International Agencies & Studies
      • Jobs & Training
      • Legal & Regulatory
      • Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion
      • Methane
      • Travel, Leisure & Recreation
    • Climate Impacts & Adaptation
      • Biodiversity & Habitat
      • Drought, Famine & Wildfires
      • Food Security
      • Forests & Deforestation
      • Health & Safety
      • Heat & Temperature
      • Human Rights & Migration
      • Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise
      • International Security & War
      • Severe Storms & Flooding
      • Soil & Natural Sequestration
      • Water
    • Demand & Distribution
      • Air & Marine
      • Auto & Alternative Vehicles
      • Batteries/Storage
      • Buildings
      • Cities
      • Electricity Grid
      • Energy Access & Equity
      • Off-Grid
      • Petrochemicals & Plastics
      • Supply Chains & Consumption
      • Transit
      • Walking & Biking
    • Jurisdictions
      • Africa
      • Arctic & Antarctica
      • Asia
      • Australia
      • Brazil
      • Canada
      • China
      • Europe
      • India
      • International
      • Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America
      • Middle East
      • Oceans
      • Small Island States
      • South & Central America
      • Sub-National Governments
      • United States
    • Non-Renewable Energy
      • CCS & Negative Emissions
      • Coal
      • Nuclear
      • Oil & Gas
      • Pipelines/Rail Transport
      • Shale & Fracking
      • Tar Sands/Oil Sands
    • Opinion & Analysis
    • Renewable Energy
      • Bioenergy
      • Demand & Efficiency
      • General Renewables
      • Geothermal
      • Hydrogen
      • Hydropower
      • Research & Development
      • Solar
      • Wave & Tidal
      • Wind
  • Special Reports
    • Alberta’s Bitumen Pipe Dream
    • Canada’s Drive to Net Zero
    • Carbon Farming
    • City and Sub-National Action
    • Drawdown
    • Drive to 1.5
    • 26-Week Climate Transition Program for Canada
    • America’s Electoral Climate 2020
    • Canada’s Climate Change Election 2019
    • The Energy Mix Yearbook 2018
      • Climate Extremes
      • Fossils Go For Broke
      • Renewables (R)Evolution
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Canada’s Contradiction
      • COP24
      • Pipeline Politics
      • Jobs and Just Transition
      • Cities and Sub-Nationals
      • Finance and Divestment
      • Climate Litigation
  • Webinars & Podcasts
  • About
  • Latest Digest/Archive
  • Partners
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Donate

logo

  • News Archive by Category
    • Climate & Society
      • Carbon Levels & Measurement
      • Carbon-Free Transition
      • Climate Action/”Blockadia”
      • Climate Denial & Greenwashing
      • Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations
      • Culture, Curiosities, & Humour
      • Demographics
      • Energy Politics
      • Energy Subsidies
      • Energy/Carbon Pricing & Economics
      • Finance & Investment
      • First Peoples
      • Insurance & Liability
      • International Agencies & Studies
      • Jobs & Training
      • Legal & Regulatory
      • Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion
      • Methane
      • Travel, Leisure & Recreation
    • Climate Impacts & Adaptation
      • Biodiversity & Habitat
      • Drought, Famine & Wildfires
      • Food Security
      • Forests & Deforestation
      • Health & Safety
      • Heat & Temperature
      • Human Rights & Migration
      • Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise
      • International Security & War
      • Severe Storms & Flooding
      • Soil & Natural Sequestration
      • Water
    • Demand & Distribution
      • Air & Marine
      • Auto & Alternative Vehicles
      • Batteries/Storage
      • Buildings
      • Cities
      • Electricity Grid
      • Energy Access & Equity
      • Off-Grid
      • Petrochemicals & Plastics
      • Supply Chains & Consumption
      • Transit
      • Walking & Biking
    • Jurisdictions
      • Africa
      • Arctic & Antarctica
      • Asia
      • Australia
      • Brazil
      • Canada
      • China
      • Europe
      • India
      • International
      • Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America
      • Middle East
      • Oceans
      • Small Island States
      • South & Central America
      • Sub-National Governments
      • United States
    • Non-Renewable Energy
      • CCS & Negative Emissions
      • Coal
      • Nuclear
      • Oil & Gas
      • Pipelines/Rail Transport
      • Shale & Fracking
      • Tar Sands/Oil Sands
    • Opinion & Analysis
    • Renewable Energy
      • Bioenergy
      • Demand & Efficiency
      • General Renewables
      • Geothermal
      • Hydrogen
      • Hydropower
      • Research & Development
      • Solar
      • Wave & Tidal
      • Wind
  • Special Reports
    • Alberta’s Bitumen Pipe Dream
    • Canada’s Drive to Net Zero
    • Carbon Farming
    • City and Sub-National Action
    • Drawdown
    • Drive to 1.5
    • 26-Week Climate Transition Program for Canada
    • America’s Electoral Climate 2020
    • Canada’s Climate Change Election 2019
    • The Energy Mix Yearbook 2018
      • Climate Extremes
      • Fossils Go For Broke
      • Renewables (R)Evolution
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Canada’s Contradiction
      • COP24
      • Pipeline Politics
      • Jobs and Just Transition
      • Cities and Sub-Nationals
      • Finance and Divestment
      • Climate Litigation
  • Webinars & Podcasts
Advanced Search
Auto & Alternative VehiclesCarbon-Free TransitionClimate & SocietyDemand & DistributionEuropeJurisdictionsOff-GridRenewable EnergySolar
Home›Demand & Distribution›Auto & Alternative Vehicles›Solar Could Soon Power UK’s Electric Rail Network

Solar Could Soon Power UK’s Electric Rail Network

February 20, 2017
February 20, 2017
 
20
0
Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  Print This Story
Tennen-Gas/Wikimedia Commons

Tennen-Gas/Wikimedia Commons

Trackside solar panels may be powering the UK’s electric trains sooner than most of us think, according to a sponsored post in The Guardian by Leo Murray, co-founder and strategy director of the 10:10 climate charity.

“Electric trains are by far the best long distance transport mode when it comes to carbon emissions—at least when their electricity comes from renewable sources like solar or wind,” Murray writes. “But the UK’s aging power network poses significant challenges to any bid to decarbonize road and rail that relies on the grid,” with new renewables installations facing high surcharges for network access across much of the British countryside.

Like this story? Subscribe to The Energy Mix and never miss an edition of our free e-digest.

SUBSCRIBE

“Faced with this constraint, and squeezed by government subsidy cuts, UK solar developers have started to focus on ways to generate power directly for consumption, rather than exporting it to the grid,” Murray explains. “With the right customers, solar developers can offer lower tariffs than the grid, while still earning more for their power than they would get from exporting it.”

Murray describes the UK’s Network Rail as a customer with “all of the features needed to support this kind of approach,” an industrial user with “high onsite daytime energy use and a structural reason to stay put”. That potential will soon be put to the test, after Lightsource signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with Belfast Airport for the output from its £5-million solar farm.

“There are already over 5,500 kilometres of electrified tracks in the UK, with a major electrification program building or converting hundreds more over the coming decades,” Murray notes. And a further advantage is the similarity between the rail system’s DC operating voltage and the standard output of a solar array.

“This serendipity makes the engineering challenge of connecting the two look very manageable, and the likely cost of the power interface equipment competitive with typical grid connection costs,” he states. (h/t to The Energy Mix subscriber Diane Beckett for pointing us to this story)

Tagsfeatured
Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  Print This Story

Find more stories about
Auto & Alternative VehiclesCarbon-Free TransitionClimate & SocietyDemand & DistributionEuropeJurisdictionsOff-GridRenewable EnergySolar

    Leave a reply Cancel reply

    Recent Posts

    • ‘Humiliated’ Kenney Demands Trade Sanctions, Could Sell Pipeline for Scrap as TC Shuts Down Keystone Construction
      ‘Humiliated’ Kenney Demands Trade Sanctions, Could Sell Pipeline for Scrap as TC Shuts Down Keystone Construction
      January 22, 2021
    • Flurry of Biden Executive Orders Returns U.S. to Paris Agreement, Begins Reversing Trump Deregulatory Agenda
      Flurry of Biden Executive Orders Returns U.S. to Paris Agreement, Begins Reversing Trump Deregulatory Agenda
      January 22, 2021
    • Global Energy Transition Investment Grows 9% in 2020, Hits Record $501 Billion Despite Pandemic
      Global Energy Transition Investment Grows 9% in 2020, Hits Record $501 Billion Despite Pandemic
      January 22, 2021
    • U.S. Chamber of Commerce Embraces Carbon Taxes, Market-Based Climate Policies
      U.S. Chamber of Commerce Embraces Carbon Taxes, Market-Based Climate Policies
      January 22, 2021
    • Power Corp. Division Says $1-Billion Renewables Fund Will Be ‘First of Several’
      Power Corp. Division Says $1-Billion Renewables Fund Will Be ‘First of Several’
      January 22, 2021

    News Feed

    Top News

    • Fitch Sees Asian Solar, Wind Exceeding 1,500 GW by 2029
      January 21, 2021
    • Survey Shows Oklahoma, Texas Drawing More Fossil Investment than Alberta
      January 21, 2021

    Read More

    Carbon-Free Transition

    • Fitch Sees Asian Solar, Wind Exceeding 1,500 GW by 2029
      January 21, 2021
    • Indigenous Agroforesters Revive Palm Forests in Brazil
      January 21, 2021

    Read More

    Canada

    • Hydrogen Train Deal Brings Investor Attention to B.C-Based Ballard
      January 21, 2021
    • Analysts Tout Intertie Between Site C in B.C., Electricity Demand in Alberta
      January 21, 2021

    Read More

    U.S.

    • Climate Change Drives Up Cost of U.S. Flooding
      January 21, 2021
    • ‘Charging Deserts’ for EVs Create Racial Divide in Chicago
      January 21, 2021

    Read More

    International

    • Norway Projects Oil Production Cuts through 2023
      January 21, 2021
    • Japanese Owner Writes Off Australia’s Newest Coal Plant as Worthless
      January 21, 2021

    Read More

    • About the Energy Mix
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy and Copyright
    Copyright 2020 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.