Tobias Nordhausen
Germany's main national railway operator, Deutsche Bahn (DB), intends to switch all locomotives running in the country to electricity from renewable sources, including solar, wind, biomass and water, within the next 17 years. DB has already contracted to supply electricity from a solar power plant from Enerparc in Mecklenburg for the next 30 years. In 2021, spending on clean energy will account for more than 60 per cent of the Group's expenditure.
The group's trains will consume a total of 10 terawatt hours of energy per year, roughly the same amount as the entire city of Hamburg, Germany's second-largest city.
A few years ago, German ICE express trains and IC/EC trains were already switched to green electricity, with clean-fuel locomotives marked with green stripes instead of the traditional red ones.
The greening of railways in Germany is being bolstered by the introduction of trains that run on "clean" hydrogen energy. French company Alstom's Coradia iLint express trains have been running across German lands since 2016, totalling 110,000 miles (177,000 kilometres) across Europe by 2021. For now, hydrogen engines are only present in newly manufactured locomotives, but the manufacturers intend to engage in similar modernization of old rolling stock.
source: dw.de
The group's trains will consume a total of 10 terawatt hours of energy per year, roughly the same amount as the entire city of Hamburg, Germany's second-largest city.
A few years ago, German ICE express trains and IC/EC trains were already switched to green electricity, with clean-fuel locomotives marked with green stripes instead of the traditional red ones.
The greening of railways in Germany is being bolstered by the introduction of trains that run on "clean" hydrogen energy. French company Alstom's Coradia iLint express trains have been running across German lands since 2016, totalling 110,000 miles (177,000 kilometres) across Europe by 2021. For now, hydrogen engines are only present in newly manufactured locomotives, but the manufacturers intend to engage in similar modernization of old rolling stock.
source: dw.de
