FIRST LIGHT: ALDERSHOT connection project

Taking our idea off the drawing board and onto the tracks, at the end of summer 2019 we connected our demonstrator solar pv array to the railway at Aldershot station in the UK.

This is just a pilot - with only about 100 solar panels with a total output just under 40kW. The array is connected to an ancillary transformer on the DC traction system. At the same time have gathered electricity demand data from our six potential community solar farm sites in the south of England. Putting this real-world data together, we’ll be able to work out how to plug in much larger solar arrays to power trains in future.

We’ll also be working on some of the legal and business side of things that will need to be in place to make this happen - such as power purchase agreements.

Our Riding Sunbeams: First Light project is proving that plugging solar directly into the UK railways can be done safely and without disrupting the trains.

All this should pave the way for connecting the world’s first ever MW-scale, community- and commuter-owned solar traction farm to the railways in 2020. 

The First Light project was funded by the Department for Transport under InnovateUK’s First of a Kind 2 competition.

After successful commissioning of the first solar pv array to feed renewable energy straight into the traction system, we invite community energy groups, transit network operators and green investors to get on board November 2019