Reopening The Darlington – Weardale Line To Passenger Services
On October 27th this Beeching Reversal Project was given £50,000 to build a case for reopening.
The current Weardale Railway is a heritage line, that extends the current National Rail service between Darlington and Bishop Auckland stations further up Weardale.
- It is a single track railway.
- The current operational length is 18 miles between Bishop Auckland West and Stanhope stations.
- The line could be extended a few miles to the site of the former Wearhead station.
- Thre is a station at the village of Stanhope which i has a castle, a community hospital and a population of 1,600.
- There is a station at the village of Frosterley which has a population of 700.
- There is a station at the village of Witton-le-Wear which has a population of 700.
- There seem to be lots of caravan parks along the river.
- From my virtual helicopter, the track looks in reasonable condition.
- There appear to be a couple of passing loops.
- There don’t appear to be any tunnels.
- The Weardale Railway has several bridges over the River Wear.
- I suspect the scenery is not bad.
To my untrained eye, this section of railway would appear to have possibilities for reopening, without any serious engineering problems.
These are a few of my thoughts.
The Connection To National Rail
This Google Map shows Bishop Auckland station, where the Weardale Railway connects to the National Rail network.
Note.
- The station appears to be well-placed in the town.
- There is plenty of space for tracks connecting the two systems.
I suspect that building a combined through and terminal station that would satisfy the needs of all stakeholders would not be the most challenging of tasks.
Could The Extended Line Have A Japanese Fairy Godmother?
Consider.
- Hitachi’s train factory at Newton Aycliffe is five miles to the South of Bishop Auckland.
- Hitachi have stated that they are developing battery-electric trains for lines without electrification.
- Developers of modern trains with complicated computer systems seem to go through many software versions.
I have to ask the question, if Hitachi would like to have a twenty-mile test track on their doorstep?
If they were testing trains that were agnostic about their power supply, the Weardale Railway would not need to be electrified, although there could be a couple of charging systems.
Would Access To The Quarries At Wearhead Be Needed?
The original Weardale Railway was built to access the quarries at Wearhead, but they switched to road transport some years ago.
This Google Map shows the Wearhead area.
Note.
- Wearhead is in the North-West corner of the map.
- There is a quarry and there used to be a fluorspar mine.
- The white scar at the East of the map was a cement works.
Is there something, that could possibly be mined in this area, that could be taken out by train.
I think it should be born in mind, that mining and quarrying used to be a very dirty and carbon-intensive industry, but big mining companies are now embracing zero-carbon technology.
Could A Holiday Company Like Center Parcs Develop A Site In The Wear Valley?
I noticed a lot of caravans and chalets, as I examined the line.
Could a big operator like Center Parcs develop one of their holiday centres?
It could even be developed with a station.
Is New Housing Needed?
Does the local authority want to develop housing along the line?
What Rolling Stock Will Be Used?
There is no point in extending the line in these days of global warming without providing zero-carbon trains.
The Tees Valley Combined Authority is keen on hydrogen and there are good reasons.
- There is hydrogen available from chemical plants on Teesside.
- Hydrogen will give the trains a long range.
- The trains would probably only need refuelling once a day.
- In addition, Alstom are looking for an order for their Class 600 train, which is a conversion of a Class 321 train.
But I have my doubts about Alstom’s trains and Hitachi have doubts about hydrogen.
Consider.
- Do you really want to run hydrogen trains on a line where steam trains run?
- Darlington station is fully-electrified and it is also to be remodelled for more capacity and High Speed Two.
- Bishop Auckland and Darlington is just twelve miles.
- Darlington and Saltburn is just thirty miles.
With charging systems at Bishop Auckland, Saltburn and Stanhope, I am fairly sure Hitachi could develop an electric train for Teesside’s railways.
Conclusion
Hitachi could be key to the design of the reopening of the Darlington and Weardale Line.
Railfreight Goes Back To Diesel As Electricity Costs Soar
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railnews.
This is the first paragraph.
Some rail freight operators have abandoned electric traction, at least for now, because the price of electricity has been rising sharply. The electricity tariffs include a 40 per cent renewable energy tax, and following the latest rises diesel traction is now cheaper. The drivers’ union ASLEF is calling for the government to intervene, but Freightliner has already taken action.
This quote from the article is from ASLEF General Secretary; Mick Whelan.
Moving freight by rail rather than road is, inherently, a carbon-efficient mode of transport and an environmentally-friendly way of doing business. Electric-hauled freight services reduce emissions by 99 per cent; even moving goods by diesel traction reduces emissions by 76 per cent.
It looks to me, that a reputable and trusted environmental economist could come up with a compromise price and possibly a solution to improve the situation.
Possible solutions could include.
- Use of Biodiesel or Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil
- More energy storage.
Surely, though, the long term solution is hydrogen-powered locomotives. or dual-fuel locomotives, as I wrote about in Freightliner Secures Government Funding For Dual-Fuel Project.
Battery Rather Than Hydrogen Trains Suggested In Sachsen Study
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Railway Gazette.
This is the first paragraph.
The use of battery rather than hydrogen traction is recommended in a study into options for replacing diesel multiple-units on regional routes around Dresden where electrification is unlikely in the short to medium term.
They give the reason that battery power is a better short term option, where electrification is envisaged in the long-term.
I also think, that in the case of the German hydrogen trains, which are hydrogen-power only, this means that the trains will have to be replaced, as the electrification is installed. Whereas, with battery-electric trains, they just get more efficient as the wires go up and don’t need to be replaced. Although, their batteries might be removed to improve acceleration.
Dresden, Leipzig and that area of Germany also has a lot of electrification already, so charging will not be a problem.
But battery power would also get around the problem at Zwickau, where diesel multiple units run through the streets as trams to a station in the town centre.
The picture shows a diesel multiple unit playing trams in Zwickau Zentrum station.
- Note the orange lights that flash on the train.
- Trams call at the other side of the platform.
- I wonder, if the Germans felt that battery-electric trains will be safer in Zwickau than hydrogen-powered trains.
It puzzles me, why this simple solution is not used more often to extend railways into town and city centres.
With battery-electric trains, there would be no need for any electrification.
Conclusion
The Germans seem to be going battery-electric train mad!
Perhaps, we should follow their example?
Ineos To Invest €2bn In European Electrolysis Plants
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Engineering and Technology Magazine.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Chemicals giant Ineos has announced that it will invest more than €2bn in electrolysis plants in the region for the production of green hydrogen, a zero-carbon fuel with applications in transport, heating, and energy.
The article states that plants could be built in Norway, Germany, Belgium, France and the UK.
Conclusion
This is a big endorsement for hydrogen.
ITM Power Raises £250 million
The title of this post, is the same as that of this media release from ITM Power.
There is a also a sub-title.
Manufacturing Expanded To 5GW Per Annum By 2024
ITM Power are certainly going large.
Given the number of plans for electrolysers published around the world, a 5GW annual production is by no means over ambitious.
Shetland Blasts Off Into Space Race As Britain’s First Rocket Launch Pad Skyrora
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.
This second paragraph, explains what Skyrora are doing.
Skyrora, a technology company with its headquarters in Edinburgh, has agreed a deal for scores of rocket launches over the next decade from a site on Unst, the most northerly of the Shetland islands.
This Google Map shows the most Northerly part of Unst.
There’s not really much there, except birds, trees and the most northerly house in Britain.
Enlarging to the West of the house, gives this second Google Map.
Note the Remote Radar Head Saxa Vord, which has a Wikipedia entry as RAF Saxa Voe.
- It is now a fully-operational radar station again, after closure in 2006.
- It is at the same latitude as St. Petersburg and Anchorage.
- In 1992, it measured a wind speed of 197 mph, before the equipment blew away.
The Wikipedia entry is worth a read, as it gives a deep insight into radar and its tracking of Russian intruders in the Cold War.
This third Google Map shows a 3D closeup of the radar.
No staff are based at Saxa Vord, although maintenance staff do visit.
According to The Times, the space port will be at Lamba Ness, which is to the East of the most northerly house in Britain.
The peninsular in the South-East is marked Lamba Ness.
It may seem a very bleak place, but it could have one thing, that rocketry will need – rocket fuel!
In Do BP And The Germans Have A Cunning Plan For European Energy Domination?, I introduced Project Orion, which is an electrification and hydrogen hub and clean energy project in the Shetland Islands.
The project’s scope is described in this graphic.
Note
- Project Orion now has its own web site.
- A Space Centre is shown on the Island of Unst.
- There is an oxygen pipeline shown dotted in blue from the proposed Sullom Voe H2 Plant to the Fish Farm and on to the Space Centre.
- I suspect if required, there could be a hydrogen pipeline.
The Space Centre on Unst could be fuelled by renewable energy.
Who Are Skyrora?
They have a web site, which displays this mission statement.
Represents a new breed of private rocket companies developing the next generation of launch vehicles for the burgeoning small satellite market.
The Times also has this paragraph.
At the end of last year, the company also completed trials of the third stage of its Skyrora XL rocket, including its orbital transfer vehicle which, once in orbit, can refire its engines 15 times to carry out tasks such as acting as a space tug, completing maintenance or removing defunct satellites.
The company seems to have big ambitions driven by innovation and a large range of ideas.
Conclusion
I shall be following this company.
UK National Grid In Talks To Build An Energy Island In The North Sea
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the New Scientist.
This is the first paragraph.
UK company National Grid has revealed it is in talks with two other parties about building an “energy island” in the North Sea that would use wind farms to supply clean electricity to millions of homes in north-west Europe.
These are my thoughts.
An Artificial Island on the Dogger Bank
The idea of the North Sea Wind Power Hub in the area of the Dogger Bank has been around for a few years and has a comprehensive Wikipedia entry.
Wikipedia says that it would be an artificial island on the Dutch section of the Dogger Bank and the surrounding sea could eventually host up to 110 GW of wind turbines.
North Sea Wind Power Hub Programme
The Dutch and the Danes seems to have moved on and there is now a web site for the North Sea Wind Power Hub Programme.
The home page is split into two, with the upper half entitled Beyond The Waves and saying.
The incredible story of how the Netherlands went beyond technical engineering as it had ever been seen before. Beyond water management. To secure the lives of millions of inhabitants.
I have met Dutch engineers, who designed and built the Delta Works after the North Sea Floods of 1953 and I have seen the works all over the country and it is an impressive legacy.
And the lower half of the home page is entitled North Sea Wind Power Hub and saying.
Today, climate policy is largely national, decoupled and incremental. We need a new approach to effectively realise the potential of the North Sea and reach the goals of the Paris Agreement. We take a different perspective: harnessing the power of the North Sea requires a transnational and cross-sector approach to take the step-change we need.
Behind each half are two videos, which explain the concept of the programme.
It is a strange web site in a way.
- It is written totally in English with English not American spelling.
- The project is backed by Energinet, Gasunie and TenneT, who are Danish and Dutch companies, that are responsible for gas and electricity distribution networks in Denmark, Ger,many and The Netherlands.
- There are four sections to the web site; Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and North Sea.
It is almost as if the web site has been designed for a British company to join the party.
Hubs And Spokes In North Sea Wind Power Hub Programme
If you watch the videos on the site, they will explain their concept of hubs and spokes, where not one but several energy islands or hubs will be connected by spokes or electricity cables and/or hydrogen pipelines to each other and the shore.
Many electrical networks on land are designed in a similar way, including in the UK, where we have clusters of power stations connected by the electricity grid.
The Dogger Bank
The Dogger Bank is a large sandbank in a shallow area of the North Sea about 100 kilometres off the east coast of England.
Wikipedia says this about the geography of the Dogger Bank.
The bank extends over about 17,600 square kilometres (6,800 sq mi), and is about 260 by 100 kilometres (160 by 60 mi) in extent. The water depth ranges from 15 to 36 metres (50 to 120 ft), about 20 metres (65 ft) shallower than the surrounding sea.
As there are Gunfleet Sands Wind Farm and Scroby Sands Wind Farm and others, on sandbanks in the North Sea, it would appear that the engineering of building wind farms on sandbanks in the North Sea is well understood.
The Dogger Bank Wind Farm
We are already developing the four section Dogger Bank Wind Farm in our portion of the Dogger Bank and these could generate up to 4.8 GW by 2025.
The Dogger Bank Wind Farm has its own web site, which greets you with this statement.
Building the World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm
At 4.8 GW, it will be 45 % larger than Hinckley Point C nuclear power station, which is only 3.3 GW. So it is not small.
The three wind farms; Dogger Bank A, B and C will occupy 1670 square kilometres and generate a total of 3.6 GW or 0.0021 GW per square kilometre.
If this density of wind turbines could be erected all over the Dogger Bank, we could be looking at nearly 40 GW of capacity in the middle of the North Sea.
Interconnectors Across The North Sea
This Google Map shows the onshore route of the cable from the Dogger Bank Wind Farm.
Note.
- Hull and the River Humber at the bottom of the map.
- The red arrow which marks Creyke Beck sub station, where the cable from the Dogger Bank Wind Farm connects to the UK electricity grid.
- At the top of the map on the coast is the village of Ulrome, where the cable comes ashore.
The sub station is also close to the Hull and Scarborough Line, so would be ideal to feed any electrification erected.
I would assume that cables from the Dogger Bank Wind Farm could also link the Wind Farm to the proposed Dutch/Danish North Sea Wind Power Hub.
Given that the cables between the wind farms and Creyke Beck could in future handle at least 4.8 GW and the cables from the North Sea Wind Power Hub to mainland Europe would probably be larger, it looks like there could be a very high capacity interconnector between Yorkshire and Denmark, Germany and The Netherlands.
It almost makes the recently-opened North Sea Link to Norway, which is rated at 1.4 GW seem a bit small.
The North Sea Link
The North Sea Link is a joint project between Statnett and National Grid, which cost €2 billion and appears to have been delivered as planned, when it started operating in October 2021.
So it would appear that National Grid have shown themselves capable of delivering their end of a complex interconnector project.
Project Orion And The Shetlands
In Do BP And The Germans Have A Cunning Plan For European Energy Domination?, I introduced Project Orion, which is an electrification and hydrogen hub and clean energy project in the Shetland Islands.
The project’s scope is described in this graphic.
Note that Project Orion now has its own web site.
- Could the Shetlands become an onshore hub for the North Sea Power Hub Programme?
- Could Icelink, which is an interconnector to Iceland be incorporated?
With all this renewable energy and hydrogen, I believe that the Shetlands could become one of the most prosperous areas in Europe.
Funding The Wind Farms And Other Infrastructure In The North Sea
In World’s Largest Wind Farm Attracts Huge Backing From Insurance Giant, I described how Aviva were funding the Hornsea wind farm.
I very much believe that City of London financial institutions will be able to finance a lot of the developments in the North Sea.
After all National Grid managed to find a billion euros in a sock drawer to fund their half of the North Sea Link.
Electrifying The North Sea: A Gamechanger For Wind Power Production?
The title of this section, is the same as that of this article on Engineering and Technology Magazine.
This article in the magazine of the IET is a serious read and puts forward some useful facts and interesting ideas.
- The EU is targeting offshore wind at 60 GW by 2030 and 300 GW by 2050.
- The UK is targeting offshore wind at 40 GW by 2030.
- The article explains why HVDC electricity links should be used.
- The major players in European offshore wind are the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark.
- The foundations for a North Sea grid, which could also support the wider ambitions for a European super-grid, are already forming.
- A North Sea grid needs co-operation between governments and technology vendors. as well as technological innovation.
- National Grid are thinking hard about HVDC electrical networks.
- By combining HVDC links it can be possible to save a lot of development capital.
- The Danes are already building artificial islands eighty kilometres offshore.
- Electrical sub-stations could be built on the sea-bed.
I can see that by 2050, the North Sea, South of a line between Hull and Esbjerg in Denmark will be full of wind turbines, which could generate around 300 GW.
Further Reading
There are various articles and web pages that cover the possibility of a grid in the North Sea.
- National Grid – Interconnectors
- The Guardian – National Grid In Talks Over Plan For Energy Island In North Sea
- The Times – National Grid Planning ‘Energy Island’ In North Sea
I shall add to these as required.
Conclusion
I am coming to the conclusion that National Grid will be joining the North Sea Wind Power Hub Programme.
- They certainly have the expertise and access to funding to build long cable links.
- The Dogger Bank wind farm would even be one of the hubs in the planned hub and spoke network covering the North Sea.
- Only a short connection would be needed to connect the Dogger Bank wind farm, to where the Dutch and Danes originally planned to build the first energy island.
- There may be other possibilities for wind farm hubs in the UK section of the North Sea. Hornsea Wind Farm, which could be well upwards of 5 GW is surely a possibility.
- Would it also give access to the massive amounts of energy storage in the Norwegian mountains, through the North Sea Link or Nord.Link between Norway and Germany.
Without doubt, I know as a Control Engineer, that the more hubs and spokes in a network, the more stable it will be.
So is National Grid’s main reason to join is to stabilise the UK electricity grid? And in turn, this will stabilise the Danish and Dutch grids.
Fortescue Future Industries Invests In Dutch Thin-Film Solar And H2 Firm HyET
I missed this article, when it was published, so I’m publishing it now!
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Renewables Now.
These two paragraphs outline the deal.
Australia’s Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) has taken a 60% stake in Dutch company High yield Energy Technologies (HyET) Group to assist in its ambition to supply 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen globally by 2030.
The green energy company of Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG) has also provided the majority of financing for the expansion of the Dutch solar photovoltaic (PV) factory of HyET Solar.
Andrew Forrest certainly seems to be splashing the cash.
I first wrote about the hydrogen innovation of the HyET Group in December 2020 in New Device Separates Hydrogen From Natural Gas When The Two Gases Are Blended In Pipelines.
I finished that post, with this simple sentence.
This invention could change the world!
In the UK, there is a project called HyDeploy, which aims to blend twenty percent hydrogen into the UK’s natural gas.
- At this level, all boilers, appliances and processes would work without major changes.
- A significant amount of carbon emissions would be saved.
- Gas imports would be reduced.
Could HyET’s technology be used to piggyback a hydrogen delivery network alongside the UK’s gas network?
It might even be possible to attach hydrogen filling stations direct to the gas network.
The Anonymous Widower 