3 ms·
Solar panels on top of the cars?
by M3L0NM4N 4y ago
Solar panels on top of the cars?
- CrazyStat 4y agoThe amount of energy provided by the solar panels would be a rounding error compared to the total needed to move the train. Almost certainly not worth it.
- bombcar 4y agoYeah you'd almost certainly be better installing electromagnets in yards to help get the train up to speed somehow ...
- M3L0NM4N 4y agoBut a few cars of batteries wouldn't? Feels like that's not that much either but I haven't run the numbers.
- CrazyStat 4y agoSome very rough back of the envelope calculations, with apologies in advance for imperial units: CSX says a "typical train" might be hauling 3000 tons of freight 500 miles, using about 3,000 gallons of diesel [1]. Batteries are about two orders of magnitude lower volumetric energy density, so 3,000 gallons of diesel has the same energy as about 300,000 gallons of batteries. Roughly 7.5 gallons per cubic foot, so that's 40,000 cubic feet. But the diesel engine only converts about a third of the energy in the diesel into usable form, while the batteries will be close to 100%, so we actually only need a third as many batteries. I'll round up to 15,000 cubic feet. A standard boxcar is about 6,000 cubic feet interior volume [2], so that would be 2.5 boxcars full of batteries. So battery cars might be feasible. [1] https://www.csx.com/index.cfm/about-us/the-csx-advantage/fuel-efficiency/ https://www.csx.com/index.cfm/about-us/the-csx-advantage/fue... [2] https://www.csx.com/index.cfm/customers/resources/equipment/railroad-equipment/ https://www.csx.com/index.cfm/customers/resources/equipment/...
- throwaheyy 4y agoThis can work for a lightweight railcar, with a lot of sun, but is out of the question for a freight train. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_Bay_Train https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_Bay_Train