Class 321 EMU's to be powered by Fuel Cells ......

Re electricity, Nat Pres members may wish to note this web site called Gridwatch which shows how electricity is generated in UK. It also shows what the French generate. It shows the connectors to and from the Continent. On quite days when wind is not strong coal is brought back into action in the winter. The site is best viewed on a cold day so you can ponder where the juice comes from when the demand is up at 48Gigs and wind is down at 2Gig from its normal 10/12 Gig on a windy day. www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk Regards

 

Thanks for the link to gridwatch. Recently went to a talk on battery powered road vehicles and the impact on electric distribution. There will be more local monitoring added and fleet owners will work with electric companies on charging off peak times.

There used to be peaks during some TV programmes when kettles were switched on?

For rail, electric will be increasingly be important, but the cost of overhead lines is holding things back, so testing battery and hydrogen fuel cell trains will be important.
The Alstrom hydrogen fuel cell trains in Germany seem to be doing well. But there is slow progress in the UK. Hopefully the University of Birmingham test minitrain at the Ffestignog railway will work well and safely to promote more EMU mainline testing?

 

https://www.urbantransportnews.com/...ompletes-successful-tests-in-the-netherlands/
The Alstrom Coradia iLinth now been approved to run in the Netherlands as well as Germany, but too tall to run in the UK, hence why the old EMUs are to be updated and tested, class 319 maybe this year and class 321 in 2022?

 

As an environmental scientist working in one of the nation's largest power stations (and a massive rail buff). I can confirm hydrogen power is possible in a train :

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48698532