Evolution Hybrid Locomotive
The energy dissipated in braking a 207 ton locomotive during the course of one year is enough to power 160 households for a year. The Evolution Hybrid Locomotive is being designed to capture braking energy and store it for later use to increase power while reducing fuel use and emissions.
Environmental Benefit
An Evolution Hybrid Locomotive producing 10 percent less CO2 than a standard locomotive in North America on an average duty cycle will avoid the emission of approximately 315 metric tons of CO2 annually, equivalent to the CO2 emissions of 61 cars on US roads per year.
Operating Benefit
An Evolution Hybrid Locomotive consuming 10% less fuel than a standard locomotive in North America on an average duty cycle will save approximately 1 million gallons of fuel over its lifetime or approximately $2.50 million at $2.50 per gallon.
The future of rail is just around the bend
How do you make a 4,400-horsepower locomotive more environmentally conscious? With pure ecomagination.
GE engineers are designing a hybrid diesel-electric locomotive that will capture the energy dissipated during braking and store it in a series of sophisticated batteries. That stored energy can be used by the crew on demand – reducing fuel consumption by as much as 15 percent and emissions by as much as 50 percent compared to most of the freight locomotives in use today. In addition to environmental advantages, a hybrid will operate more efficiently in higher altitudes and up steep inclines.
More information about the hybrid locomotive
GE engineers are developing a hybrid locomotive with the goal of creating the cleanest, most fuel-efficient high-horsepower diesel locomotive ever built.
The energy dissipated in braking a 207-ton locomotive during the course of one year is enough to power 160 households for that year. The hybrid locomotive will capture that dynamic energy and use it to produce more horsepower and reduce emissions and fuel use.
GE’s hybrid locomotive's lead-free rechargeable batteries will be able to provide superior performance by allowing operators to draw an additional 2,000 horsepower when needed.
Compared to a locomotive manufactured in 2004 (meeting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Tier I emission requirements for railroad locomotives), GE’s hybrid locomotive is being designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions over its lifetime by an amount equivalent to taking 2,600 cars off the road for a year.
GE’s hybrid locomotive is being designed to emit half as much nitrogen oxide as locomotives built 20 years ago.
Replacing every locomotive in North America manufactured before 2001 with GE’s hybrid technology would, in a year, cut nitrogen oxide emissions as much as removing one-third of all cars from U.S. roads.
If every locomotive in North America could operate as efficiently as GE’s hybrid locomotive is being designed to operate, railroads could achieve a fuel-cost savings of U.S. $425 million each year.
