From pv magazine USA.
With the cost of solar panels falling through the floor (2020 solar module pricing is now below $0.25/watt) and projected to continue falling steadily, where are we going to put all those beautiful panels?
Rooftops are a great place. Open land can be good in some areas, but not when it competes with natural habitat or agriculture. What about parking lots, canals, train lines, highways, and other areas already being used for some other activity?
That seems like a great idea to a lot of people and a number of companies are working on this growing area for solar deployment. I’ll focus on just one company in this piece, P4P Energy, a small company founded by Stephen Conger and based in Boulder, Colorado.
(Disclosure: I have no financial interest in this company, though I did used to own and run a small company focused on solarizing trains, Solar Trains LLC, which is now defunct).
P4P has designed and installed a number of solar canopies in India over canals, one of the more promising use cases for this new technology. Their technology relies on an innovative design that significantly reduces the amount of racking required to support the panels. Basically, the designs rely on cables to support the panels, rather than fixed racking. And that reduces the costs substantially.
A major advantage of this design is the ability to string cables over a longer distance without the support needed in traditional racking approaches. They’re also kind of pretty because of the natural catenary curve the cabling system provides.
A P4P Energy parking lot solar canopy under construction in India (Source)
P4P has so far focused on parking lots and water ways. But what about train lines, both over train tracks and adjacent to train tracks? Could this technology power a new system of ultra-efficient electric trains in countries like the U.S. that don’t have a very efficient train system?
Electric trains are so efficient that a single 300 W solar panel can provide up to 7,000 miles of an individual’s commuting miles per year, or 5 miles to 20 miles per day. The national average, based on National Transportation Database data on the efficiency of the various U.S. electric train systems, is about 4,000 miles per year for each 300 W solar panel. One mile of train tracks can support 1 MW to 3 MW of solar panels, which can provide 2 million to 6 million passenger-miles of train travel. Yes, “million.”
The passenger-miles provide by solar or other renewables is practically emission free, even if we include the energy costs required for manufacture and shipping of the panels.
Miles of daily train travel per 300 watt solar panel (source: NTD data and NREL insolation data).
These numbers highlight just how efficient electric trains can be. The equivalent miles from one 300 W solar panel for a regular electric car — my Chevy Bolt, for example — would be just 1,600 miles per year or 4.5 miles per day, or about 40% of the national average for U.S. electric trains. So electric trains are about 2.5 times more efficient than most personal EVs, which are in turn about 2.5 to 3 times more efficient than a highly efficient internal combustion engine vehicle.
These numbers translate to the ability to supply a majority or even all of U.S. electric train systems from solar power next to or over their train tracks and parking lots.
Does anyone see a national economic recovery plan potential with this new technology and the vast potential over the nation’s carports, waterways, trains and highways?
Author: Tam Hunt
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Great idea! I’ve been building carports for 28 years. They just sit in the sun and make shade and with this they can make electricity and protect. Win win for mother earth and humans. 👌
If trains are so efficient how come train travel, here in Europe, is so expensive? Roads, cars, drivers pay taxes, trains get subsidies but still the fares are exorbitant
Energy use would make up a very small part of the passenger fare. Infrastructure is the big one. It costs a lot of money to build and maintain long distance rail networks.
If you look at the amount subsidised, it pretty much equals the amount it costs to travel by train. Around €0.2 per passenger km. The government is basically recouping their investment.
To get ticket costs down, you need more people to travel by train.
combustion engine car costs are the same – 0.2 € per km and mainly there is 1 person inside .
0.1 € / km are fuel costs and another 0,1 € goes for all other.
But if there were no cars, the density of railway network should be higher too…
Re unique Trains Solar efficiencies
In OZ ( Australia in the sun ” Down – Under ” ) Why not have Cabled Solar National Employment Projects post Virus eg
1. Indian Pacific ( East – West / Sydney to/from Perth ) ;
&or
2. Gann ( South – North / Adelaide to/from Darwin ) ;
Cheers Jeff M. Weeks
What about the hurricane wind loads on the hanging arrangements?