On February 23, Berthold Huber, Member of the Management Board of Deutsche Bahn AG for Traffic, and Hendrik Wüst, the Transport Minister of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, officially opened company’s carbon free depot for long-distance trains. The carbon-neutral maintenance depot is located in Nippes, northwest of Cologne, and is designed for ICE trains.
The 23-hectare depot is Europe’s most modern and environmentally friendly which required a EUR 220 million investment. During the operation, the 100 percent CO free depot will save 1000 tonnes of CO2 per year, and will increase trains’ maintenance capacity by 12 percent.
“With the first CO2-neutral ICE-depot, Deutsche Bahn is strengthening its pioneering role in environmental protection,” Berthold Huber said.
The carbon neutral ICE depot operation is based on geothermal and solar energy and is air-conditioned by the geothermal use of the groundwater. Within the project, a photovoltaic plant with an installed capacity of around 300 kilowatt (KWh) was built covering around 2,100 square meters.
Within the project, DB hired 170 new employees and over the next few years a total of 400 will be new jobs are created.
In October 2017, Deutsche Bahn announced its 2030 climate protection target which envisages the reduction of specific CO2 emissions worldwide by at least fifty percent. Until 2050, the company intends to become a completely climate-neutral group.
Deutsche Bahn has set itself a new, ambitious climate protection target, to reduce specific CO2 emissions worldwide by at least fifty percent by 2030. This is a major step toward becoming a completely climate-neutral group, which Deutsche Bahn intends to be in 2050.
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