This is a technology question.
On the surface Diesel-Electric Locomotives and Diesel-Electric “Hybrid” Automobiles appear to have much in common.
The question is how much do the power stytems of Railroad Locomotives and “Hybrid” Automobiles have in common?
The laws of physics are the still the same, but is the technology nearly identical?
Andrew
A hybrid has a small engine whose power can be greatly augmented (tripled?) by a large battery-- no such thing on a locomotive. Hybrids recapture a (large?) chunk of the energy that other cars waste in their brakes-- no such thing on a locomotive.
Aside from both having wheels driven by electric motors, I don’t see any similarity.
I think that GE was testing using the dynamic braking energy to charge batteries and then use those batteries to assist during acceleration. I am not sure if it is testing at GE or if it is in real world testing.
https://www.getransportation.com/general/locomotives/hybrid/hybrid_default.asp
When GE builds the Hybrid Diesel-Electric Locomotives are they adapting technology from railroad applications or borrowing technology from automotive applications?
More like a “minor” tweak of existing technology. The AC drive locomotoves run the inverters off of a DC bus, and it doesn’t take much to hook up a battery across that bus. (W-e-l-l, that’s probably understating the scope of work by a bit…) Historically, the closest technology would be the diesel subs of the US Navy - which were series hybrids from the early 30’s (the engines were conected to generators and the propellers were driven by electric motors).
In most of the current “true” hybrids (GM Pickups and Saturn VUE are not true hybrids), the power of the gasoline engine is from 150 to 200 HP, the electric motor adds up to about 100 HP to that, so the increase is from 50 to 75%.
Too bad it takes so much money to actually save money!
Doing a review of the economics, it takes a long time to repay the difference in cost for a hybrid by the savings on gas…especially since the price of oil/gasoline has come down. Most people who buy hybrids therefore do so for other reasons, either to cut back on the dependance on foreign oil, reduce emissions and thus their part in global warming, or beacuse of the “Gee Whiz” factor.
The big push for Hybrid locomotives so far have been driven by pollution concerns, is places such as the LA basin. Typically there are some major incentives for the rail roads, including grants, to find a way to reduce emissions.
Actually, both hybrid locomotives and hybrid automobiles are borrowing a concept originated over a century ago by John Holland. He was the first person to combine internal combustion-powered generators, battery storage and electric drive.
Of course, his electric motors didn’t turn wheels. They turned screws (aka propellers.) Other than trading gasoline for diesel, the technology has been used in its basic application, submarines, ever since the U. S. Navy bought the USS Holland. More than a few very modern submarines are still diesel-electric drive.
Chuck
That’s easy…Electric-fired steam! [:)]
Or…One could use a quantum-nucleonic hot cell, and a soft X-ray to make enough heat to produce steam…[8D]
It looks from the article that the batteries gather energy only from the dynamic brake grid, not from the main alternator like the green goat. It only has a limited use of the batteries as it takes a downhill or a braking application to charge them, but its better than wasting the energy as heat. This technology is what they use on the Prius and other true hybrid cars called Regenerative Braking.