Page 6 - Innovation in energy management: contribution of railways to sustainable mobility

I. INTRODUCTION

In November 2016, the Spanish Railways Technological Platform (PTFE) published the first
version of the position paper on Sustainable and intelligent energy management in the
railway sector As indicated at the time, the PTFE understood that sustainable and intelligent
energy management in the field of research and innovation in the railway sector would be
a key factor in favouring competitiveness and ensuring the leadership of the railway
industry.

The present document is an update of the previous one, given that the sector continues to
establish this issue as a strategic priority due, in large part, to the economic cost but also to
the need for railway administrators and operators to continue promoting and
strengthening rail transport as “sustainable transport”.

This document was created at the end of 2021, which was the European Year of Rail. This
decision was adopted by the Council of the European Union in December 2020, in line with
EU efforts to promote sustainable modes of transport such as rail, and with its commitment
to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 through the European Green Deal.

Although transport accounts for around 25% of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU, rail is
only responsible for 0.4% of these emissions. It is the only means of transport that has
substantially reduced its emissions since 1990, which justifies its fundamental role in
sustainable mobility.

This is mainly because the railway is heavily electrified. Whilst other modes of transport are
stilltrying to migrate towards electrification, the railway had already done so by the end of
the 19th century, in what was considered the first technological revolution of this mode of
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transport . Electrification is undoubtedly the way to continue reducing its emissions.

However, de-carbonisation does not imply total electrification, and evolution to other
complementary solutions must also be considered. In Spain, approximately 20% of current
rail traffic continues to be diesel, so other alternatives must be found for those lines where
electrification is not the best solution. With this background, and in an environment of
energy transition, the railway energy future is going to be hybrid, that is, it will combine
renewable electricity and gas solutions, promoting the development of new associated
technologies.

The IEA, in an update of its Energy Technology Perspectives report, advanced that the state
of maturity of the technologies on which it depends to achieve the total de-carbonisation of
the economy in 2050 is extremely low (between 2 and 20% depending on the segment of
activity). For this reason, it emphasised the need to combine the acceleration of
development and innovation projects with effective solutions in terms of energy efficiency.

In this new context, this position paper on Innovation in energy management: contribution
of railways to sustainable mobility, re-analyses the role of innovation in energy management
in infrastructure, rolling stock and operation, as well as future trends and applications. The
document, once again coordinated by ADIF's Research, Development and Innovation Area,
with the participation of companies, technology centres and research groups from different
universities, all members of the PTFE, has been validated by the majority of national,

1 To reinforce this fact, and to increase awareness, the main milestones in the use of electrical energy
on railways are included in the final Annex of this document.
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Position paper: Innovation in energy management: contribution of railways to sustainable mobility
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