Trains; you either love ’em or hate ’em. Whatever your opinion is, they are the favoured choice of transport when it comes to long distance travelling. Even better, electric-powered trains are carbon-emission friendly when they stem from renewable sources such as wind or solar.

“Renewable energy + trains = win!” is probably what you’re thinking. However, the UK’s aging power network prevents engineers from making large parts of the country compatible to use to solar, wind or hydropower. Renewable energy reinforcement is a costly process and joins barriers such as government subsidy cuts in slowing down the nation’s transformation over to renewable energy.

This is why UK solar developers are selling off their power directly for consumption, instead of exporting it to the grid. If solar developers liaise with infrastructure owners such as Network Rail, then there may well be light at the end of the tunnel.

Network Rail are currently the country’s single largest electricity consumer. By utilising the current electrification of train lines across the country, solar-powered trains could soon be reality with track-side photovoltaic systems across the nation.

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