The Dehli Metro has received the first carbon credits for a rail system in the world. They didn't however do it in a way that people would expect, by taking people out of cars (which they are trying to do), but rather registering the energy saved through regenerative braking of the system. I find that the most fascinating thing about it. Recently there has been news about Sacramento retrofitting their cars to put power back into the grid through regenerative braking but I haven't heard much about other systems doing it. Anyone heard anything about other systems?
I do know that folks in Portland and New York city are looking for ways to capture carbon credits. This might be a better way to start than going after the amount of tailpipe emissions saved by people moving from cars to transit which is often hard to figure out, but should be done eventually. I wonder how hard it would be to retrofit the New York City Subway Cars with this technology?
4 comments:
It wasn't clear to me from the article: Are these carbon credits being used to fund the implementation of a regenerative-braking system which wasn't there before? The credits should fund the true net reduction in carbon-dependent energy sources, right?
If not, then it's just finding a revenue stream for something which already existed but with a shady justification, and potential "greenwashing" to boot...
I'm not saying that's the case, it's just not clear to me from the article what is really being funded here. Maybe I'm just cranky because it's late and I need to go lie down and regenerate.
It seems to me like the credits are funding the braking upgrade and all extra proceeds will go to operations. "The money from sale of CERs will be used to offset the additional investment and operation costs."
I'm not sure, but I recall reading somewhere that New York's new R160 cars have regenerative brakes. I could be wrong, though.
Lawrence: I've read the same thing -- R160's, and a few other models have it, as well. I remember reading on the MTA's site at some point that the 4/5/6 line, the L, and maybe a couple others have regenerative breaking
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