Italy’s Solar-Assisted Trains
Italian train company, Trenitalia, has unveiled what’s it’s billing as Europe’s first solar-power-assisted train cars. The PVTRAIN project involves 10 prototype units that feature solar panels installed on the train car roofs.
The systems do not power the propulsion but they do provide energy for the train’s air conditioning, illumination and safety systems, freeing the locomotive engines from having to create power for that electrical load and helping to make the trains more efficient.
This project is being partially funded by the EU and has been under development since 2003. If successful, the CEO of Trenitalia, Roberto Testore says that they’re looking to produce these systems on an industrial scale.
Here on some articles from the Green Car Congress and Italy’s Ansa.it.
[via Treehugger]
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