4 ms·
Some of the trains in the photograph use up to ~17MWs, to get 129MWh of batteries installed on the ground in the worlds largest battery array at the time, cost
by ehnto 4y ago
Some of the trains in the photograph use up to ~17MWs, to get 129MWh of batteries installed on the ground in the worlds largest battery array at the time, cost $90 million dollars and while a train could certainly pull it, it's a non-trivial addition. That battery array couldn't move the train for even a fraction of some journeys required by train engines, so I think it's a non-starter economically for these cross-country journeys.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hornsdale_Power_Reserve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hornsdale_Power_Reserve
- agsnu 4y agoNot for cross-country journeys yet (at least not alone), but battery powered locomotives are picking up steam... https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2022/03/01/the-new-frontier-in-electric-vehicles-trains-with-batteries-big-enough-to-power-small-towns/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2022/03/01/the-new-... Apparently they largely have regenerative breaking already but nowhere to store the energy so dump it through resistors to vent it as heat, if they had big battery arrays the savings could be significant.