Quote:
Originally Posted by Texas Contrarian
So, as you can easily see, battery-powered electrification of rail transport will make wonderful sense when batteries become cheap enough to reduce the costs to or below current diesel-electric economics, and that will happen if innovations substantially reduce the cost of batteries per kWh of capacity.
At that point, executives and investors will want to electrify rail transport, and it will not need to depend on government mandates or subsidies.
(Which is as it should be!)
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An expert quoted in one of my links said only 15% to 30% of the U.S. railway system was amenable to electrification. Presumably with battery powered locomotives, 100% would be. With batteries I guess the only significant cost to modify the system would be replacing the locomotives. Perhaps that day will come. Until then, California politicians and regulators can't wave their magic wand and make it happen.
