4 ms·

Note that this is for diesel trains. While likely most of the length of the track won’t be electrified soon, essentially all tracks in western Europe (France, G

Note that this is for diesel trains. While likely most of the length of the track won’t be electrified soon, essentially all tracks in western Europe (France, Germany, possibly Poland) are already electrified. This means that using nuclear or renewable energy generation, the trains can run emission-free there, in particular avoiding the strongly localised particle emissions by ships in and around harbours.

guard-of-terra 10y ago
Most of the length is electrified already. Yekaterinburg-Madrid definitely, Kazakhstan-Yekaterinburg likely, China-Kazakhstan connection and Chinese side probably remains an issue.
- jdietrich 10y ago
  I would wager that Chinese and Russian electricity is no cleaner than diesel. They have an awful lot of old coal power stations burning lignite and sub-bituminous coal.
  - guard-of-terra 10y ago
    Most of Russian generation is natural gas, with notable hydro and nuclear. Anyway, this is fixable. Planes and ships are not.
  - _coldfire 10y ago
    The Chinese source 25% of their electricity from renewables. US is at 15%. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electricity_production_from_renewable_sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electrici...
jdietrich 10y ago
German electricity is fairly dirty and Polish electricity is absolutely filthy - they're both heavily reliant on coal. Germany is committed to phasing out all of their existing nuclear plants by 2022; Poland has no nuclear capacity and is unlikely to have any before 2030. Renewables are clearly going to be a growing part of the energy mix, but the issue of base load is still an unanswered question. https://electricitymap.tmrow.co/ https://electricitymap.tmrow.co/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Germany#Closures_and_phase-out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Germany#Closu... http://www.platts.com/latest-news/electric-power/warsaw/polish-nuclear-capacity-will-not-be-built-before-26489875 http://www.platts.com/latest-news/electric-power/warsaw/poli...
- Faaak 10y ago
  The electricity may be dirty, the electric train is not. Even with a dirty electricity, an electric train is more efficient than a diesel one (EDIT: braking regeneration).

guard-of-terra 10y ago

Most of the length is electrified already. Yekaterinburg-Madrid definitely, Kazakhstan-Yekaterinburg likely, China-Kazakhstan connection and Chinese side probably remains an issue.

jdietrich 10y ago
I would wager that Chinese and Russian electricity is no cleaner than diesel. They have an awful lot of old coal power stations burning lignite and sub-bituminous coal.
- guard-of-terra 10y ago
  Most of Russian generation is natural gas, with notable hydro and nuclear. Anyway, this is fixable. Planes and ships are not.
- _coldfire 10y ago
  The Chinese source 25% of their electricity from renewables. US is at 15%. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electricity_production_from_renewable_sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electrici...

jdietrich 10y ago

German electricity is fairly dirty and Polish electricity is absolutely filthy - they're both heavily reliant on coal. Germany is committed to phasing out all of their existing nuclear plants by 2022; Poland has no nuclear capacity and is unlikely to have any before 2030. Renewables are clearly going to be a growing part of the energy mix, but the issue of base load is still an unanswered question. https://electricitymap.tmrow.co/ https://electricitymap.tmrow.co/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Germany#Closures_and_phase-out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Germany#Closu... http://www.platts.com/latest-news/electric-power/warsaw/polish-nuclear-capacity-will-not-be-built-before-26489875 http://www.platts.com/latest-news/electric-power/warsaw/poli...

Faaak 10y ago
The electricity may be dirty, the electric train is not. Even with a dirty electricity, an electric train is more efficient than a diesel one (EDIT: braking regeneration).