{"id":11993,"date":"2021-01-20T10:32:36","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T07:32:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=11993"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:31:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:31:23","slug":"can-railways-be-fully-solar-powered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2021\/01\/20\/can-railways-be-fully-solar-powered\/","title":{"rendered":"Can railways be fully solar-powered?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trains are the most efficient mode of transportation we have. Despite\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.iea.org\/reports\/rail\">carrying<\/a>\u00a09% of global passengers and 7% of global cargo, they make up just 3% of global transportation energy use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Around the world, about 75% of trains are electrified with the rest running on diesel. This makes them the right candidate to run on complete clean energy without significant investments in overhauling the infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But what would it take to do that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2017, Australia ran the world\u2019s first&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/inhabitat.com\/the-worlds-first-100-solar-powered-train-launches-in-australia\/\">100% solar-powered train<\/a>&nbsp;fitted with a 6.5kW system on top of its two coaches. The battery capacity, at 77 kWh, was similar to a high-end Tesla Model 3 and could allow the train 6\u20137 round trips on its 3 km track. There is also a 30kW solar system at the station to charge the battery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, the train had quite some metrics to reach.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.northernstar.com.au\/news\/success-story-byron-solar-train-clocks-10000-trips\/3308210\/\">Built<\/a>&nbsp;with an investment of ~6 million AUD, the train needs 350 round trips a day to remain viable. But given the limited&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/byronbaytrain.com.au\/\">schedule<\/a>&nbsp;between the daylight hours, this is a stretch.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/economictimes.indiatimes.com\/industry\/transportation\/railways\/indian-railways-launches-first-solar-powered-train\/amount-of-power-generated\/slideshow\/59593827.cms\">India<\/a>&nbsp;has also had rooftop solar trains, but only to power lights and the likes within the train.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Therefore, it is still a distant reality to have 100% of rooftop solar-powered trains for the masses. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sustainability-times.com\/expert\/can-railways-be-fully-solar-powered\/\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trains are the most efficient mode of transportation we have. Despite\u00a0carrying\u00a09% of global passengers and 7% of global cargo, they make up just 3% of global transportation energy use. Around&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}