Trains powered by the Sun 太陽能火車

本集內容

學習要點

有關 “power（動力）” 的詞匯

邊看邊答

Which country’s railway system plans to be carbon neutral by 2030?

文字稿

Railways are one of the greenest forms of transport, but they still use huge amounts of electricity. So why not run trains on solar power?

鐵路是最環保的運輸方式之一，但仍需消耗大量的電力。那麼，為什麼不利用太陽能發電來驅動火車呢？

These look like ordinary commuter trains, but near this station something unusual is happening. They’re getting a little bit of power directly from this trackside solar farm.

這些火車看起來像普通的通勤列車，但在這個車站附近卻發生著一些不同尋常的事情。這些火車直接從軌道旁的太陽能農場獲取一些電力。

Leo Murray, Riding Sunbeams
This is 123 solar panels, taking energy straight from the Sun, and feeding it directly into the rail traction system via the inverters you see on the wall over there. What this means is that, so long as the Sun is shining, every train that passes this section of track is picking up a little bit of the energy that it needs to move, directly from the Sun.

利奧·穆雷 Riding Sunbeams 公司
“這裡有123塊太陽能電池板，直接從陽光中獲取能量，然後通過那面墻上安裝的逆變器將能量直接輸入鐵路牽引系統。這意味著，隻要陽光燦爛，每一列經過這段軌道的火車就會直接從陽光中獲取一些運行所需的能量。”

Many railways are replacing diesel trains with cleaner electric ones. But in the UK, rail is the biggest single consumer of electricity. So there’s a push to get more from renewable sources.

許多鐵路系統都在用更清潔的電力火車取代柴油火車。但在英國，鐵路是電力的最大單一消耗源。因此，人們正在推進從可再生能源中獲取更多電力的做法。

Gareth Dennis, Rail Engineer and writer
The grid is decarbonising and the railway needs to exploit that. And so you are looking at wind as a good example of providing clean energy, nuclear is certainly a part of the mix as well. But also you’ve also got solar, which is continuing to get cheaper as a source of electricity. Solar energy is a really easy thing to deploy next to infrastructure on embankments, wherever you like.

加雷思·丹尼斯鐵路工程師、作傢
“輸電網正致力於脫碳，而鐵路正需要利用這一點。比如，風能就是提供清潔能源的一個很好的例子，核能當然也是清潔能源中的一種。但同時，太陽能也是一種清潔能源，作為一種電力來源，價格越來越便宜。太陽能板是一種非常便於安裝在堤壩等任何基礎設施旁的裝置。”

And how about countries with even more Sun than the UK?

那麼，在比英國更加陽光明媚的國傢，情況如何？

Nearly 1,000 stations in India have solar panels on their rooves. And Indian Railways plan to be carbon neutral by 2030.

印度近1000個火車站的屋頂上都裝有太陽能電池板。印度鐵路（Indian Railways）計劃到2030年實現碳中和。

Australia already has a train run entirely on solar power. Its batteries are charged by panels on the train roof and at the station. It actually exports 75% of the energy it creates back to the grid. But this train only goes a short distance and battery storage is limited.

澳大利亞已經擁有一列完全靠太陽能驅動的火車。該車的電池靠車頂上和車站內的太陽能電池板充電。它還能把自己產生的75%的能量輸回到電網中。但這輛火車的行駛距離很短，而且電池的容量也有限。

Gareth Dennis, Rail Engineer and writer
I don’t think we are going to see trains with lots of solar panels on the top of the roof whizzing around any time soon. However, in terms of solar panels either trackside or as part of the wider grid mix – I see that as being quite a major part of the electricity that will power trains in the future.

加雷思·丹尼斯鐵路工程師、作傢
“我認為在短期內，我們不會看到車頂上裝有大量太陽能電池板的火車呼嘯而過。然而，無論是軌道旁的太陽能電池板，還是作為更大范圍的混合電網中的一部分，我認為太陽能是未來為火車提供電力的重要組成部分。”