RailPower MentionSee below for comments on RailPower (contained in an article on alternative energy technologies). Here is the link to the full article:
https://www.businessedge.ca/article.cfm/newsID/10402.cfm
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Manufacturers of hybrid products are also on his radar screen. "They haven't quite got a fuel cell, but rather a step in between traditional power generators and the fuel cell, and it's really catching on."
Railpower Technologies, which refurbishes old locomotives and turns them into hybrid switchers to operate in railyards, has attracted a lot of attention from rail companies and investors alike.
The Vancouver-based company says railroads are seeking ways to reduce reliance on high fuel prices.
"For example, every one-cent rise (in fuel prices) for Union Pacific, the biggest railroad in North America, means $13 million of additional costs," says Railpower spokesman Nigel Horsley. "So I think the railroad industry has been shocked into taking paramount consideration about the fuel price and where it's going."
Horsley says its lower-horsepower locomotives - which cost about two-thirds the price of standard machines - cut fuel costs by about 30 per cent.