[SoftTalker]

It does seem kind of silly to put the panels between the rails, more prone to damage there from stuff falling off the trains, derailments, etc. and not angled for optimal sun exposure though I guess it's easy open space.

Before I read the article I was thinking the electricity from the panels would power the trains but doesn't sound like the output is enough.

[dn3500]

They're getting 180 watts per meter, so it would take 50 km of panels to power one high speed train. And that's when the sun is shining. Double this at least if you want to store the energy and run trains in the evening.

[6510]

This is incorrect, you mean 180 kWp/m.

> in one year, the project has produced around 16,000 kWh.

160 kWh per meter.

  Urban Metro / Trams: 2 to 10 kWh/km

  Commuter Trains (EMUs): 4 to 12 kWh/km

  Regional / Intercity Trains: 6 to 20 kWh/km

  High-Speed Trains: 15 to 60 kWh/km

  Freight Locomotives: 10 to 50+ kWh/km

[dn3500]

It's obviously not 180 kWp/m. If it was I could put 1 meter of panels on my roof and power my house and 200 of my neighbors.

I didn't try to calculate the amount of energy it produces in a year, just the length of panels required to power a high speed train when the sun is shining. 18,000 watts / 100 meters is 180 watts per meter. At 180 watts per meter, 50 km gives you 9 MW, which is about what a high speed train consumes at cruise.

[6510]

Sorry, I ran away from the keyboard without validating. The point I was trying to make was that Wp means you don't even get 180 W per meter.

[RetroTechie]

> This is incorrect, you mean 180 kWp/m.

This is incorrect. 18000 Wp/100m = 180 Wp/m or 180 kWp/km. So parent is correct, and you can either add or drop a "k".

That is peak power, obtainable in summer months & muuch less in winter.

Over the whole year: 16000 kWh/100m = 160 kWh/m = 160 MWh (160,000 kWh) per km.

[6510]

Yes yes, and no. The k was obviously wrong, I cant believe I wrote that. lol

But you cant just drop the p. The p means you won't even get that.

This part seems correct tho:

> ...so it would take 50 km of panels to power one high speed train.

160 MWh/km * 50 km = 8 GWh = 8 000 000 kWh

High-Speed train after acceleration uses about 30 kWh/km

8GWh / 30kWh = 270000km

A typical high speed train in Europe drives between 300 000 and 450 000 km/year

The 50 km solar wouldn't be enough.

A passenger train using 6 kWh/km could drive 1 350 000 km using 50 km of solar.(27000 km/km)

There is about 10 000 km of high speed rail in the EU and about 200 000 km of rail in total. All combined trains travel some 4.1 billion km per year.

4 100 000 000 km / 27 000 km = 151 851 km

It fits but very slowly.

We should order the 72 888 480 panels. If they cost 50 euro each it would only cost 3.6 billion.

Took them 3 years to install 48 so 72 million would take 4.5 million years.

Maybe the Chinese can help.

[marysol5]

>more prone to damage there from stuff falling off the trains, derailments, etc

How often is a train derailed? And even then everything has to be replaced anyway...

Same goes for "stuff falling off", you can easily replace the panel(s)

[audunw]

How often do stuff fall of the rails, and how common is derailment? In case of derailment you’ve got much bigger problems than some broken solar panels.