VR Group has started its own energy production at a solar power plant deployed in late 2020, which will serve the maintenance of the train fleet. The plant was built by Solnet Finland, which has been the supplier in many large-scale power plant projects.
The plant has been built at the Helsinki depot on the roof of Pendolino hall. The power plant consists of 2,264 solar panels and is one of the largest plants in Finland with a rated output of 928 kWp. The amount of electricity produced in a year is equal to the electricity consumption of about 40 electrically heated detached houses, or alternatively, you could use the same amount of energy to drive an electric car about 100 times around the globe.
The electricity obtained from the power plant is directed to the maintenance of Pendolino trains and it covers about 25% of the hall’s annual need for electricity. On a sunny day, the power plant’s output exceeds the consumption of the hall, in which case the production is utilised elsewhere in the train depot.
The project is part of VR Group and its subsidiary VR FleetCare effort to use sustainable energy for the rolling stock fleet. Deploying solar energy is part of VR FleetCare’s more extensive energy efficiency project. The project includes, for example, examining defrosting solutions that use less water and the optimisiation of the energy efficiency of our own operations.
“Pursuant to our vision, we are on a journey to become the best in the world. In addition to the particularly important environmental values, building a solar power plant is also a financially profitable project for us. After a one-time investment, the energy produced with the plant is practically free. In the longer term, the total annual radiation of the sun varies only a little, which means that even with the investment cost, the price of the energy produced remains locked far into the future,” Juha Ohvo, Chief Security Officer at VR FleetCare, said.
Railway transport is essential to combat climate change as it produces lower emissions and consumes less energy than other transport modes. The VR traffic has for a long time and to a large extent used electricity produced with renewable energy. “It was interesting to lead the first solar power project that was realised for VR Group, and for the maintenance company VR FleetCare, in particular. The solar power plant is one of the flagship projects of our responsibility programme and increasing renewable energy is also in line with Finland’s energy and climate objectives,” said Martti Jalkanen, energy expert and maintenance manager of the site, who acted as a project manager in the plan project.
In the future, the company would construct solar power systems on its properties and its buildings. VR has increased the use of the renewable energy by switching from oil heating to geothermal heat at several sites.
Share on:
