Antwerp touts solar-assisted HSR
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-ChiefSolar panels installed this summer atop a 3.6-kilometer (2-mile) rail tunnel in Belgium is helping to power high speed rail service linking Amsterdam, Antwerp, Belgium, and Paris.
A photovoltaic solar site covering roughly 12 acres, comprised of 16,000 solar panels, is helping to power HSR and the Antwerp, Belgium, train station. Installation was performed by Belgium-based energy company Enfinity.
The tunnel originally was built to protect the rail line from falling trees as trains ran through an old-growth forest near Antwerp. The two-mile stretch of panels will generate the equivalent amount of electricity that is needed to power every train in Belgium for one day per year. The project cost $22.8 million.
“For train operators, it is the perfect way to cut their carbon footprints because you can use spaces that have no other economic value and the projects can be delivered within a year because they don’t attract the protests that wind power does,” said Bart Van Renterghem, head of the British branch of Enfinity.
Numerous European train stations have installed or are installing solar power facilities, with London’s Blackfriars Station slated to join the list next spring. Enfinity’s Van Renterghem said the cost of solar panels has been cut in half in the last three years due to economies of scale in France, Belgium, and Germany.
