Tube trains will soon be part-run by solar power — and no, this isn't an early April Fools'.
TfL is the largest single electricity consumer in London, using 1.6 Terawatt hours (TWh) per year — equivalent to the electricity consumed by just shy of 600,000 homes. As part of an ongoing bid to be using 100% renewably-sourced electricity by 2030, TfL has announced it plans to annually yield some 65,000 megawatt hours of renewable electricity (that's around two-thirds of the annual consumption of the Victoria line) from solar energy.
SSE Energy Solutions — TfL's new delivery partner — will harvest the energy from newly-installed solar farms, 'wiring' it straight to the TfL network, and therefore bypassing the National Grid. TfL says it will work with SSE to identify suitable locations to build the solar installations, although one new facility in Longfield, Essex, has already been decided on.
Says Lilli Matson, Chief Safety, Health and Environment Officer at TfL: "Once built, the new solar installations will provide locally generated renewable electricity, reducing the pressure on the National Grid, while also helping to protect us against market volatility with the added potential for cost savings too."
Along with the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, TfL is working to make the capital a net zero carbon city by 2030.
In 2020, a world-first scheme was introduced, in which waste heat from the Northern line is converted into heating and hot water for some 1,350 Islington homes, as well as a school and two leisure centres.
