We’re thrilled to share that our friends at Riding Sunbeams, which we have been invested in since September 2020, have won $75,000 in Cisco support as part of the company’s first Fast Future Innovation Awards.
The prize will be delivered in the form of resources, expertise, and scale to help Riding Sunbeams to develop, prototype and implement its ideas, with the business developing bespoke technology that connects solar energy to AC overhead electrified routes.
“We’re thrilled to be recognised by Cisco for our innovation in decarbonising the rail network, which holds huge potential for the UK and our ability to achieve net zero. As a start-up, we’re currently raising capital to support us in the next stage of growth. This funding will be instrumental in ensuring we can continue innovating, working towards our goal of powering the railways using solar power, while also sharing the benefits with track-side communities.” - Leo Murray, Innovation Director, Riding Sunbeams
With research finding that solar traction power could provide at least one tenth of the energy needed to power trains on the UK’s electrified routes every year, the team will also be looking at how it can continue unlocking the route to market for community owned solar farms which have planning permission but not the long-term price certainty they need to secure funding for construction.
After extensive feasibility work and research, Riding Sunbeams completed its first successful pilot project in 2019. Honing the technology with Network Rail, the company connected over 100 solar PV panels to the railway at its demonstrator site, outside Aldershot station in the UK, which are still in operation today.
The trial was instrumental in proving that solar PV can feed power directly into DC third rail electric traction network. Network Rail has now launched a new tender to explore further opportunities for the direct supply of renewable power to its infrastructure across the UK.
You can listen to Leo Murray, Riding Sunbeams’ Innovation Director, discuss the awards and the company’s mission to power the railways with unsubsidised, direct-wire renewable generation as part of the Evening Standard’s Leader podcast series here.
