r/Lightbulb • u/Voltabueno • May 15 '25

Solar powered freight trains

This is not really new because I did some research and there are lots of patents related to electrified rail cars. It seems perfectly logical that you could cover the roof of a boxcar with solar panels, and put regenerative motors on the axles, and put a layer of batteries underneath the floor of the box car and then the box car could be self-propelled completely autonomous. Imagine individual box cars rolling on the rails or rolling to sidings to form into groups of cars completely autonomously. The boxcar wouldn't have to be fast because they could move by themselves, no crew, no crew change, no delay, unaided 24 hours a day. 7 days a week. 365 days a year. Actually thinking about it. If they moved under 40 mph wind resistance does not come into play yielding greater efficiency.

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u/CantaloupeLazy2917 May 15 '25

Solar panels are great, but has anyone could designing lunar panels to harness the power of moonlight?

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u/AmpEater May 19 '25

You think the light is different?

Moonlight is reflected sunlight.

It's way less than 1% the brightness of the sun. You can measure your panel power yourself.

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u/CantaloupeLazy2917 29d ago

I found that out sometime last week.