Re:Amtrak Goes Electric, Drops $466 Million on Siemens Elect...
by toolate on Sunday October 31, 2010 @01:48AM
(#1852577)
Good point. Wikipedia suggests that there are battery powered locomotives - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_locomotive#Electric_lo...
Charging such a massive ammount of batteries quickly could potentially be problematic.
Re:Amtrak Goes Electric, Drops $466 Million on Siemens Elect...
by jnw2 on Sunday October 31, 2010 @02:02AM
(#1852600)
I think the right strategy for charging a locomotive battery pack would be to install a short section of 25kV catenary at the station/layover facility at the end of the route. Amtrak has some HHP-8 locomotives which are 8000 horsepower, about 5 megawatts, which demonstrate that carrying about 5 megawatts through a catenary system to a locomotive is not terribly difficult.
Recharging will take longer than refuelling a diesel, but if the recharging can be done in under an hour, that's probably tolerable.
In any event, doesn't the train being heavier mean that it can carry a much bigger battery pack than the automobile?
Amtrak's newest diesels produce 4200 horsepower, which is just over 3 megawatts. 40 Roadster battery packs (at 53 kilowatt hours per battery pack, and about a thousand pounds per battery pack) would store roughly 2 megawatt hours (35-40 minutes of the diesel at full throttle), weigh 20 tons, and probably cost something under $2 million at Tesla Model S era pricing. The catenary locomotives Amtrak is buying are over $6.6 million each, so the cost to add batteries sufficient for Richmond or Springfield service might well increase the cost of the locomotive by less than 50%.