Battery Powered Locomotives Released: Battery Technology: Eco20/20

Battery Powered Locomotives Released

The United States has a locomotive fleet of over 20,000 units. The average lifespan of these locomotives is forty years with major overhauls done on the vehicle roughly five times on average during its lifetime. The power of these locomotives can vary from around 2000 horsepower for the switchers to around 4000 horsepower for the passenger or hauling locomotives. Most of them run on diesel fuel and electricity (Source: WSU.edu)

One of the switching operators, the locomotive that switches train cars from track to track, is now a hybrid, battery powered locomotive. Called the "Green Goat" it uses energy which is stored in the lead acid battery. A very small, 100 horsepower motor keeps this battery charged and ready until it is needed. The company behind the Green Goat is Rail Power Technical Corporation of Vancouver, Canada. The company says that the battery charged locomotive engine could reduce fuel consumption by around 30% and reduce all of its emissions by nearly 85%.

In terms of the emissions reduction alone this is huge news. Back in the old days of coal fired trains, think of the thick clouds of black smoke that were left in their wake and how dirty the air was in areas of heavy train travel. Although there have been changes, emissions continue to plague the industry. If using this type of battery power can reduce these emissions, think how much more reduction would be realized with more of these in the fleet. If even ten percent of the fleet were to be battery powered, that would be 2000 locomotives that are each reducing fuel consumption rate by 30%.

Many areas of the country have investigated adding more passenger based train service, usually from outlying rural areas to jobs located in the urban areas. Instead of trying to commute by car every day, these people would be able to ride a train into work. People need to get to their jobs every day, it does not make sense to allow all of those single passenger vehicles on the road and using the train could be a very viable and ecological option to consider. It is even better if all of these new train routes would be handled by battery powered locomotives for even greater environmental savings.

Source: http://www.engery.wsu.edu/documents/renewables/locomotives.pdf