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While the malevolently incompetent self-puffer who occupies the Oval Office keeps promoting his pals in the fossil energy business, renewable energy innovators in the US keep bringing more wind and solar power to more people. One particularly interesting development involves re-purposing the nation’s vast freight rail system to haul wind and solar energy around the country, unclogging grid bottlenecks around the way.
From Railways To Renewable Energy
The railways-to-renewables concept is made possible by the the state of modern battery technology. Thanks in part to the electric vehicle trend, transportation stakeholders have been pouring billions into new energy storage R&D since the early 2000’s. As a result, the batteries of today are more powerful, more compact, and less costly than just a few years ago.
Improved battery safety is another crucial factor. In past years, freight haulers may have been reluctant to take on new business hauling fully charged, large scale lithium-ion batteries here and there, due to the risk of fire hazards. Toxic chemicals already account for part of rail freight, and Li-ion batteries would pile on new headaches. New battery formulas help alleviate those concerns.
The startup SunTrain surfaced on the pages of CleanTechnica last December with a plan for recharging batteries on freight cars using renewable energy culled from wind or solar farms when prices are optimal, and hauling them out to discharge at remote locations or other sites where the demand for electricity is high but grid capacity is inadequate.
This “mobile peaker plant” business model is based partly on a 2023 grid study produced by the US Department of Energy, which estimated that the nation’s transmission system will need to reach about 115,000 gigawatt-hours by 2040, double its current capacity. Meeting all of that extra demand with new transmission capacity will be a tough row to hoe, considering the expense and time involved in building new power lines, transformers and associated infrastructure, along with barriers placed by local opponents and lawmakers.
Meanwhile, the US already has an existing network of freight railways and established rights-of-way stretching through population and industrial centers, representing 100,000 miles of capacity that could be put to use hauling renewable energy instead of fossil energy.
What About The Locomotives?
Aside from dropping off clean kilowatts along their route, freight cars charged with wind and solar energy could also help the nation’s railway stakeholders switch over to fully electric locomotives.
The US is practically one step away from sending whole fleets of electric locomotives rolling down the tracks. Currently, diesel-electric technology powers almost all US freight locomotives. Adopted in the mid-20th century as a labor saving and energy efficiency improvement, the diesel-electric model deploys an onboard diesel generator to produce electricity to run the locomotives’s power system.
Pushing diesel fuel from the equation is difficult and expensive, but the Pennsylvania-based firm Wabtec is among those takingn on the challenge of developing battery powered, all-electric locomotives. The primary application is for hybrid trainsets that pair 100% electric with diesel-electric locomotives for an extra dose of power when needed. It’s not a complete solution but it does result in a significant cut in diesel emissions.
More Renewable Energy For More People
Another Pennsylvania firm, the startup Voltify, has developed a rails-to-renewables alternative solution that enables freight haulers to keep their current fleet of diesel-electric locomotives. Instead of relying on diesel as the primary fuel, the generator hooks up to batteries in the freight cars. The diesel equipment stays as a backup system in case of need.
Voltify (not to be confused with a similarly named firm that specializes in EV charging) contacted CleanTechnica by email last week to provide more details about their approach, which deploys smart grid technology and microgrids in an integrated renewable energy harvesting and delivery system.
“Voltify is building a decentralized ‘energy network’ of solar-powered microgrids along freight rail routes to power battery locomotives,” the company explains. “These microgrids act like a virtual grid – forecasting demand, pricing power, and distributing energy – while trains serve as mobile energy carriers, delivering power exactly where it’s needed.”
That’s just for starters. Voltify aims to deploy its AI-enabled route optimization software in other areas as well. “While Voltify is starting with rail, the underlying model – predictive, distributed, and mobile – is designed to scale across other industries, and serves as a blueprint for how energy can move with demand, not just wait for it,” Voltify noted.
The Dynamic Charging Difference
If you’re wondering how Voltify can keep locomotives powered up without draining all the renewable energy out of its “VoltCar” freight cars, that’s a good question. The company plans to deploy dynamic charging to keep the VoltCars charged up while en route. Recharging also takes place at fast-charging systems located at rail yards while the VoltCars are parked.
Road-embedded wireless EV chargers sounded futuristic just a few years ago, but they are are beginning to make the transition from R&D to active use in the automotive sector. Building up supply chain and manufacturing support are among the next steps to be tackled.
Sometime in the sparkling green future, railway-based renewable energy innovators could also combine dynamic charging with railroad-embedded solar panels. Meanwhile, Voltify is focusing on solar energy to power a network of microgrids, including stationary fast-charging systems for VoltCars parked at rail yards.
Voltify is also exploring the potential for sodium-ion batteries to avoid bottlenecks and commodities price swings that can impact the lithium supply chain. The company cites safety considerations along with recent improvements in energy density and performance, too. Solid-state technology is another alternative, though in both cases Voltify notes that the state of the technology has to catch up.
This is all well and good, but until Republican members of Congress stop sitting on their hands and start exercising their lawful power as the majority in both the House and the Senate, President Trump and his assiduous helper, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, will continue to cut invaluable public resources into ribbons.
The willy-nilly cutting of staff at the National Weather Service and the Federal Aviation Administration are among the recent examples to make headlines as life-preserving federal agencies scramble to fill positions sliced by Musk’s “DOGE” team. If you have other examples, drop a note in the comment thread. Better yet, find your representatives in Congress and let them know what you think.
Image (cropped): The Pennsylvania firm Voltify is laying plans for a network of solar-powered microgrids to ferry renewable energy around the country by freight car while decarbonizing diesel-electric locomotives, too (courtesy of Voltify).
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