Title
RIDING SUNBEAMS: FIRST LIGHT

CoPED ID
b09e7a18-4637-48e7-a6c8-f613473e064c

Status
Closed


Value
£699,028

Start Date
March 1, 2019

End Date
Nov. 30, 2019

Description

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Riding Sunbeams is a world first initiative to bring together Britain's favourite energy source - solar - with our biggest electricity consumer - the railway network.

The cost of solar power has fallen dramatically in recent years, and solar is now cheaper than fossil energy in most markets around the world. Meanwhile UK railways already use around 1% of all our electricity, and demand for traction power on our rail networks is rising. Electrified railways and solar power are two of the key technologies for tackling climate change by moving Britain away from reliance on fossil fuels, but they also share another important characteristic: their intrinsically distributed nature.

While Britain's ageing power grids are struggling to cope with connecting new renewable generating capacity, the UK's thousands of miles of electrified railway lines are in effect operated as a parallel, semi-independent 'shadow grid', with high energy demand distributed throughout: each traction substation on the DC network South of London has the annual power demand of a small factory. Riding Sunbeams has recognised this 'shadow grid' as potentially offering an entirely new route to market for decentralised energy generation.

The modular nature of solar generation and the diffuse nature of the energy resource - sunshine - means it can be deployed almost anywhere, from small rooftop arrays to solar farms a mile wide. This feature of solar PV also makes it an ideal candidate for installation on rail corridors and south facing embankments, turning otherwise unproductive land that cannot be used for any other purpose into a revenue generating, carbon-busting productive asset. Network Rail is one of the UK's biggest landowners.

Although some rail stations and trains have begun to install solar PV in Britain and elsewhere, nobody anywhere in the world has yet connected solar generation directly to rail traction networks to power trains. Our Riding Sunbeams: First Light demonstrator project will develop a solution to this challenge, helping us to realise our vision of a 21st century railway, with community and commuter-owned solar traction farms located alongside electrified routes, powering Britain's train journeys with cheap, clean and unsubsidised renewable energy.

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Subjects by relevance
  1. Solar energy
  2. Renewable energy sources
  3. Railways
  4. Railway traffic
  5. Trains
  6. Energy production (process industry)
  7. Climate changes
  8. Solar power stations
  9. Energy
  10. Electrical power networks
  11. Train travel
  12. Farms

Extracted key phrases
  1. RIDING SUNBEAMS
  2. Solar power
  3. Solar traction farm
  4. Solar generation
  5. Rail traction network
  6. Solar farm
  7. Annual power demand
  8. Traction power
  9. Solar pv
  10. Power train
  11. High energy demand
  12. Power grid
  13. Favourite energy source
  14. Decentralised energy generation
  15. Railway network

Related Pages

UKRI project entry

UK Project Locations