Public Funding for Riding Sunbeams Ltd

Riding Sunbeams Limited is a highly-innovative start-up focused on decarbonisation of the railway industry through connecting renewable energy directly into the railway power supply network. We were the first to achieve this globally through our pioneering FOAK 2019 project, which connected solar energy directly into Direct-Current, third rail powered railways, in conjunction with Network Rail at their Aldershot site. The project was a huge success with George Freeman, Minister for State at Department for Transport visiting the site in Jan 2020. This project will build on our success to date and develop a first of a kind direct connection between renewable generation and Alternating Current overhead line powered rail traction systems (which form two thirds of the railway system). We are passionate about decarbonisation of the railway, whereby ensuring that the UK has a truly green transport solutions is a key tenet of meeting our net zero carbon obligations. Furthermore, our innovation has deep social benefits as it leverages community energy projects to generate the energy required to meeting the substantial demand of the railway system. This 9-month project will serve to develop a demonstrator site, with the aim of developing a market-ready solution that can be widely deployed through rapid scale-up post project, ensuring a greener, cheaper and socially beneficial transport solution.

Riding Sunbeams is a world first initiative to bring together Britain's favourite energy source - solar - with our biggest electricity consumer - the railway network. The cost of solar power has fallen dramatically in recent years, and solar is now cheaper than fossil energy in most markets around the world. Meanwhile UK railways already use around 1% of all our electricity, and demand for traction power on our rail networks is rising. Electrified railways and solar power are two of the key technologies for tackling climate change by moving Britain away from reliance on fossil fuels, but they also share another important characteristic: their intrinsically distributed nature. While Britain's ageing power grids are struggling to cope with connecting new renewable generating capacity, the UK's thousands of miles of electrified railway lines are in effect operated as a parallel, semi-independent 'shadow grid', with high energy demand distributed throughout: each traction substation on the DC network South of London has the annual power demand of a small factory. Riding Sunbeams has recognised this 'shadow grid' as potentially offering an entirely new route to market for decentralised energy generation. The modular nature of solar generation and the diffuse nature of the energy resource - sunshine - means it can be deployed almost anywhere, from small rooftop arrays to solar farms a mile wide. This feature of solar PV also makes it an ideal candidate for installation on rail corridors and south facing embankments, turning otherwise unproductive land that cannot be used for any other purpose into a revenue generating, carbon-busting productive asset. Network Rail is one of the UK's biggest landowners. Although some rail stations and trains have begun to install solar PV in Britain and elsewhere, nobody anywhere in the world has yet connected solar generation directly to rail traction networks to power trains. Our Riding Sunbeams: First Light demonstrator project will develop a solution to this challenge, helping us to realise our vision of a 21st century railway, with community and commuter-owned solar traction farms located alongside electrified routes, powering Britain's train journeys with cheap, clean and unsubsidised renewable energy.