Hydrogen 'experimental', but can 'bridge the gap' to decarbonise diesel-run trains before 2050: Irish Rail
Irish operator tells Hydrogen Insight that 98% of its lines are yet to be electrified with overhead lines, while batteries are currently insufficient for mainline operations
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“Only 53km are currently electrified, leaving 2,733km only accessible by direct power engines,” said Heidi Hopper Duffy, environmental officer for Irish Rail.
“Electrification of a railway line takes significant planning and infrastructure. It’s not just a matter of sticking up overhead lines.
“A widening of the rail corridor and the installation of substations with access roads complicates the construction. This additional land area will require the purchasing of land easements, which takes decades to sort out.”
And even if these overhead lines are built, the increased demand could put extra strain on the Irish electricity grid in the short term.
National grid operator EirGrid had warned in 2021 could face generation deficits up to 2031 due to “deteriorating availability of power plants, resulting in their unavailability ahead of intended retirement dates”, although this is expected to ease as new capacity comes online.
As such, while direct electrification “is the overarching strategy” for Irish Rail to decarbonise its railway network towards carbon neutrality by 2050, it is faced with finding more immediate ways to meet a target to reduce emissions by 51% by 2030.
“Currently there is no alternative energy/fuel main line locomotive (other than diesel) commercially available on the market to purchase for the Irish Network,” he said.
Smyth added that the industry has broadly determined that running mainline operations, which tend to have much higher speeds to travel longer distances than branch lines, “purely on battery is not feasible at this time given the limitations on battery storage and charging”.
However, he did not rule out batteries completely, noting “there is some application for battery traction technology on railways for lighter passenger vehicles”.
In addition to trialling a diesel-battery hybrid conversion on one of the units in Irish Rail’s InterCity fleet, trains on order with Alstom for the expanded Greater Dublin DART area — one of the few networks that is completely electrified — “will be battery powered to travel beyond the electrified areas around Dublin”.
“Again battery technology is developing quickly so the next few years will bring further advances with this,” Smyth said.
Likewise, there have been “some fuel cell operation on shunting locomotives but currently it does not have mainline application”, he added.
The underwhelming performance of fuel cells in the field may be why Irish Rail announced last month its hydrogen internal combustion engine retrofitting trial, despite this technology being even less mature.
“It will be interesting to see how this combustion trial performs for Irish Rail as it potentially offers a simpler way to deploy hydrogen on older fleets,” Smyth said.
“However, the challenges are more to do with hydrogen storage on board to permit a decent range and also the availability of any type of hydrogen in sufficient quantities.”
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