The new system will be mostly powered by solar energy and a nearby wind farm. The city hopes to have it all in place by 2017
(Photo from Getty Images)
If you've ever taken the subway you know that the subway is not all that sunny. So it sounds unreal to hear of a subway system run mostly on solar power. That's what the city of Santiago, Chile is hoping to do on its 108-stop, 64-mile Metro system. Chile is one of the sunniest places on earth, but the metro will still need some help running on solar power. With this new system the train will get up to 60% of its energy from a solar installation and up to 18% from a nearby San Juan wind farm.
The solar system is 100-megawatts and will be mounted nearly 400 miles away, south of the Atacama Desert. The power will the be transmitted directly to the Metro. The city hopes to have their trains running on solar power by 2017. Unlike most organizations that say they run on renewable power, but are actually tapping into a standard grid to offset the amount of energy they use, the Metro shows a new trend in direct connections.
(Image via DigitalJournal)
The solar plant that will provide 400-megawatts of power is being built by California SunPower using low-cost modular panels that minimize setup and maintenance time. And just like most things today robots are involved. The system uses these special robots to keep the panels clean since the desert is very dusty. This increases the amount of power generated by up to 15%. SunPower is also trying to make a difference in the United States. The company has teamed up with Ford to provide renewable energy for owners of electric vehicles. SunPower CEO Tom Werner believes the Santiago plan could be the start of a trend with cities with major transit systems.
"Metros are energy intensive," he says in a Fast Coexist article. "And of course in the urban areas where you have metros, the air quality is something that's very visible and people are very aware of, so they're motivated to go renewable. The value's gotten so good they can save money. I think this is the beginning of a widespread trend."
If Santiago is able to make this a reality, their transit system will be the first in the world that will get most of its power from renewable energy. With so much effort being put into conserving energy this new plan is ambitious and will make a huge difference if it proves to be successful. Just imagine transit systems in New York and Chicago running on mostly solar power. But there's no guarantee the solar power would make the trains faster.
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