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.

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.