Bicycle parking near Leuven station, Belgium April 29, 2006
Posted by Hans De Keulenaer in efficiency, public transport.add a comment
bicycle parking near Leuven station, Belgium
Originally uploaded by Leonardo ENERGY.
Bicycle parking on a Saturday morning near Leuven Station (a university town), after the students went home for the weekend.
Students using the bicycle-train combination instead of car reduce energy consumption by a factor 2 and CO2 emissions by a factor 3 (or twice these factors when being picked up).
Efficiency in public transport April 28, 2006
Posted by Hans De Keulenaer in efficiency, public transport.add a comment
The 2 reports in this post are not recent, but together, they present a very detailed case study on efficiency in DC railway systems, offering a wealth of technical information. Both studies have been performed by KEMA (the 2nd study has never been published before):
In 'Optimal reduction of energy losses in catenary wires for DC railway systems', the optimum conductor cross-section is found to be significantly larger than the standard currently used. Selective and gradual phasing-in of thicker copper conductors in the feeder wire yields following benefits for the Dutch railway sector:
- an estimated energy saving at 30 GWh/year, or 2% of the total Dutch traction power consumption
- an avoided annual emission of 21,000 tons of CO2 per annum
- improved traction performance and hence better punctuality of trains (to be quantified)
- enhanced energy saving and CO2 emission reduction by regeneration of braking energy (to be quantified)
The second report 'Benefits of upgrading the overhead line of a DC railway line in the Netherlands – a simulation case study', focussed on the last 2 bullets mentioned above, quantifying these effects for a specific railway line.
