New Technology – Solar Power will Drive Mainline Trains

Solar Power will Drive Mainline Trains

This might sound like a crazy idea and, No, it does not rely on solar panels being fixed to trains! An innovative company called “Riding Sunbeams” has come up with a highly successful scheme whereby a direct connection is made between renewable energy generators and electrified rail networks.

Who are Riding Sunbeams?

Riding Sunbeams is a consortium, including Turbo Power Systems, Ricardo Power & Environment and rail companies Network Rail, Angel Trains and the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education.

The green tech start-up was founded by climate charity “Possible and Community Energy South” with the goal of supplying the rail network with green, community owned power.

Ivan Stone, chief executive of Riding Sunbeams, said: “Using solar energy to power railways faces a number of technical challenges, but Riding Sunbeams’ world leading project teams are consistently showing how every one of these challenges can be overcome. Instead, the hardest part of realising our mission is turning out to be breaking into the traction power supply market as an SME with an innovative new value proposition.”

What has been achieved so far?

In August 2019, Riding Sunbeams celebrated a ‘first of its kind’ demonstrator project, which saw a solar-powered railway, with a 30kW solar test unit consisting of around 100 solar panels, switched on in Aldershot. The ‘First Light’ project bypassed the grid by connecting the solar unit to an ancillary transformer on the railway train’s traction system.

Climate change charity 10:10 Climate Action was running the project in collaboration with

First Light pilot site at Aldershot station. (Photo credit: Andy Aitchison)

Community Energy South and Network Rail, alongside a consortium of engineering and renewable energy consultants and academics.

Electricity demand data from six community solar sites was collected, with the intention of discovering how larger solar arrays could power trains. The results were then applied to the creation of “the world’s first ever full-scale” solar farm connected to UK railways, owned by communities and commuters, which Riding Sunbeams planned to complete by the end of 2020.

The ‘First Light’ project was funded by the Department for Transport through the “First of a Kind Round 2” competition, delivered by Innovate UK. It spawned from a 2017 study by 10:10 and Imperial College London’s Energy Futures Lab, which found that solar connected directly to rail, tube and tram networks could supply electricity at a lower cost than prices available on the grid and could meet a “significant share” of their electricity needs.

Leo Murray, director of Riding Sunbeams, said: “Matchmaking the UK’s biggest electricity user, the railways, with the nation’s favourite energy source, solar power, looks like the start of the perfect relationship.

The Next Stage

In August 2020, Riding Sunbeams project won a further £2.5 million of funding to develop solar power for railways. As part of the government’s £900 million “Getting Building Fund”, the South East Local Enterprise Partnerships (SELEP) won £85 million, which was split between 34 projects aimed at creating 9,167 new jobs and safeguarding a further 3,341.

Greentech start-up Riding Sunbeams’ collaborative project with Network Rail was one of the successful bidders. It was a proposal to develop and supply clean energy from solar farms to rail networks. It will be the first to create a direct connection between renewable energy generation and electrified rail networks.

Through this scheme, the Company was awarded £2.527,500 to develop solar power for railways. The proposal was to build and connect the Cuckmere Community Solar Farm, working with the Cuckmere Community Solar organisation.

The solar farm was built to power the railway through a private-wire direct connection and is the world’s first MW scale renewable solar plant to directly power a railway. While it was granted planning permission in 2017, it struggled to find a workable business model, according to Riding Sunbeams. Its connection to the rail track provides it with a route to market, ensuring its future viability