The Railroad Windfarm enables the EV industry, manufacturing, the renewable energy sector, service stations, and the Third World to have a smoother transition to a lower carbon future.

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The Railroad Windfarm combines several successful technologies in a completely unique combination. The underlying premises are, most trains run on electricity generated by diesel turbines, and harvesting kinetic, solar, and wind energies with trains. 

 

Compared to the available options, the mobile Railroad Windfarm is superior to any other power generating technology. It creates jobs while significantly reducing carbon emissions. It’s less expensive, scalable, and can be installed on virtually any train, on any gauge of tracks, anywhere around the world.

 

The Railroad Windfarm is designed to be an economic workhorse. Several ways of conserving fuel result in reduced operating costs and train emissions. It indirectly reduces the emissions from autos, energy generation, and trucks. Methane emissions from urban areas can also be reduced.

 

Carbon emissions that cause the Climate Change crisis have been recognized as a dire threat by world leaders. Solutions are in high demand. For years we've been told that new technologies would be invented to help fix Climate Change. The Railroad Windfarm is one of those technologies. Its Features, Functions, and Benefits are appealing to EV entrepreneurs, the renewable energy industry, and governments.  

 

A larger population, increased EV use, and more AI data centers coming online create a growing demand for power. This demand could be met by building new fossil fueled power plants that emit several kinds of air pollution. Not really a viable option since the emissions cause Climate Change.

 

Nuclear power has no carbon emissions and is touted as a solution to Climate Change. What is ignored is that nuclear wastes are radioactive for thousands of years and nuclear power plants cause serious environmental impacts by discharging warm water from their cooling towers. Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima have shown that nuclear power is a dangerous technology that causes more problems than it solves.

 

Small scale thorium nuclear reactors are another short-sighted technology. Their waste is radioactive for ‘only’ 100 years, but they create a bigger problem. If small scale nuclear reactors became common, a Police state would be needed to prevent ‘dirty bombs’.

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The huge risks of nuclear power to public health, safety, the environment, and the loss of personal liberties far outweighs the benefit of zero carbon emissions. These factors, plus wasted taxpayer dollars caused by astronomical costs, make any kind of nuclear power the opposite of sustainable.

 

So far, stationary solar/wind farms or hydroelectric power have been the best options. Costs fall as efficiency improves. Offshore wind farms are good except for the difficulty in building them. The big drawback is that stationary wind, and solar farms cause migratory bird deaths. Hydroelectric dams disrupt fish migrations causing depleted populations. The mobile Railroad Windfarm technology doesn’t cause bird or fish fatalities.

 

Geothermal and tidal wave energies have shown promise but haven’t reached commercial scale. When they reach commercial scale, a big problem will be they may require expensive new transmission lines due to insufficient capacity. They will need the Railroad Windfarm because the transmission lines will increase the initial and ongoing costs of any power plant by adding land acquisition, permitting, and construction costs plus the perpetual costs of maintaining towers and equipment over miles of terrain. For comparison, there are 160,141 miles of train track in the US, if an equivalent length of transmission lines were built it would cost from $483 to over $965 Billion.  

 

Regardless of the technology used, 5% of the power is lost by transmission lines. Faulty equipment or high winds often cause wildfires that are typically suppressed with planeloads of possibly cancer-causing fire retardant. Where the terrain is difficult, maintenance is frequently deferred in favor of greater short-term profits.

 

Maintenance on transmission lines is often lackluster even when the terrain isn’t rough. Utilities routinely shut off power to avoid the huge liabilities of catastrophic wildfires caused by poorly maintained transmission lines. Pacific Gas and Electric lost $5.3 Billion in revenue from 2013 to 2020 due to intentional power shut offs.

 

Another application is replacing existing hazardous transmission lines. Large swaths of land can be reforested. Planting trees naturally sequesters carbon and creates wildlife habitat. Spraying of toxic defoliants can be eliminated. 

 

NIMBY opposition and land use issues are minimized by using existing railroad rights of way to generate and transmit renewable energy. Eliminating litigation and transmission line costs makes out of sight out of mind locations feasible for renewable energy facilities.

 

When stationary wind or solar farms generate more power than the grid can use, they curtail generation. Due to several factors, curtailments vary from .02% to 20%. The mobile Railroad Windfarm eliminates curtailments by diverting surplus energy to its diesel turbines. Without any transmission line losses or curtailments, the mobile Railroad Windfarm technology is 5% to 25% more energy efficient than a similar sized stationary renewable energy facility.

 

The Railroad Windfarm adapts regenerative brakes to railcars to harvest the kinetic energy of a slowing train to generate power. The power charges supercapacitors, then is diverted to charge batteries and/or to power railcar functions.

 

Zero Emission Refrigerator Railcars eliminate diesel generators. The technology supports offshore wind farms co-located with aquaculture by transmitting the power and using ZERRs to ship the ‘free range’ seafood.

 

Other notable applications are supplying EV infrastructure, desalination, and electrolysis. 

 

To help overcome inertia after a complete stop, the stored battery power can be diverted to ‘booster’ traction motors. The extra power and redistribution of the load mean the diesel turbines need to generate less electricity which conserves fuel. As shown on a graph, the huge spike of diesel fuel used during start-ups becomes a much smaller wave.

 

One application of the innovative Railroad Windfarm is temporarily parking groups of wind turbine railcars to form stationary wind farms that harvest historic winds. The power generated charges EV batteries or is stored until it’s discharged into the grid. When the wind event is over the temporary windfarms are removed. 

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Recent technological advances at Stanford enable solar panels to generate power at night using temperature differentials. At Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, China their solar panels generate power from the friction caused by rain falling on them. Both could improve the Railroad Windfarm

   

Battery capacities continue to rise. When the Patent application was filed railcar battery capacity was 1 Kilowatt. When it was granted, the capacity had increased a thousand-fold to 1 Gigawatt.

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Lithium-ion batteries need temperature controls and fire suppression equipment. Safer, lower cost battery chemistries have been introduced. The increased safety and reduced cost make the Railroad Windfarm technology even better.   

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To see a Railroad Windfarm scale model (without airfoils) check out the Photos. To learn how the technology works check out the Video. The focus of this website is on the railcars featured in the Patent. For many additional railcar types and applications see More Options.