FEATURE »» FTI Communication Systems telecommunications networks; »» Clean Power Hydrogen - advanced electrolyser technology; »» Global Gas Logistic Solutions lightweight efficient fuel containers; »» Ricardo - low carbon propulsion hybrids and storage.
Unlocking funding The competitions announced at the conference will have several winners, as the intention is to make funding available to various projects that meet the competitions’ requirements. The £1 million RSSB competition is for feasibility studies and demonstrator projects. These projects must address one of three key challenges: »» High speed train power - carbon efficient traction energy, reduction of auxiliary energy consumption and energy harvesting; »» Freight traction power - carbon efficient traction energy and improving diesel traction to reduce carbon; »» Infrastructure to support operations - energy storage and distribution including studies on scaling up current technologies and cross modal integration. The competition proposals need to be submitted by 9 January 2019. RSSB will announce the winning bids in February and produce an initial report on the findings of each successful project in March 2020. RSSB is also co-funding a scheme for rail carbonisation and energy efficiency initiatives organised by Innovate UK’s Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP). KTPs match companies with an academic associate that has the required research expertise and facilities. For the targeted rail decarbonisation KTPs, there are three funding rounds which close on 12 December 2018, 6 February and 20 March 2019. Although the Innovate UK KTP call follows the same three challenges as the RSSB collaborative R&D competition, its scope also includes additional areas
Range extender concept with cutaway free piston engine. such as non-high-speed trains and more efficient electric trains, both of which are specifically excluded from the RSSB competition. Finally, the conference heard how Innovate UK was running a “First of a Kind - round 2” competition on behalf of the Department for Transport. Entitled “Demonstrating tomorrow’s stations and a greener railway”, for which a total of £3.5 million is available, the closing date for this was 28 November. This competition will provide successful entrants with funding to deploy a well-developed technology in a rail environment.
The missing solution It was good to see the many decarbonisation initiatives presented at this conference. Some of these are already delivering significant carbon savings, whilst others will be powering trains in a year or so. Of these, the Class 165 hybrid being produced by Angel Trains is a welcome development, as it shows the rail industry is starting to follow the automotive sector’s lead in hybrid technology. RSSB’s competitions will no doubt accelerate such developments and it will be interesting to hear of the winners’ proposals early next year. Because these competitions form part of the industry’s response to the government’s call for an end to dieselonly trains from 2040, they are bound
by government requirements. Reports indicate that the government does not wish the industry’s response to include further electrification, despite this being the only alternative to diesel for highpower traction requirements. Initiatives for more efficient electric traction are also excluded from the RSSB competition. This seems odd as the electric trains that comprise 72 percent of the UK passenger fleet offer significant potential for carbon savings. At the conference, it was explained that electrification was covered by Network Rail and Railway Industry Association initiatives. As an example, Network Rail’s Wendi Wheeler advised that the company is to specify the requirement to minimise CO2 in is contracts for electricity supply. The exclusion of electrification from these competitions reflects the UK Government’s view which seems to be that electrification is just too expensive and the solution is better trains without appreciating the space constraints that limit the power of selfpowered trains. Furthermore, as Graeme Clark of Siemens Mobility pointed out, international rolling stock companies must invest in the future of UK rail despite frequently changing requirements with no stable, long term view of rail electrification. Indeed, the boom and bust nature of UK electrification is one reason why it has proved so expensive. The UK government is right to require the rail industry to accelerate its rail decarbonisation initiatives. In this respect, the competitions launched at the RSSB’s decarbonisation conference have a valuable part to play. Yet the government also needs to understand just how its policy decisions affect the industry’s ability to decarbonise.
Rail Engineer | Issue 170 | December 2018
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