Infinity Train Got 14.5 MWh Battery That, Ideally, Never Needs Charging
c0lo writes:
(15 Dec 2025) Fortescue Infinity Train gets 14.5 MWh battery that never needs charging [update]
Goes loaded downhill and recharges the 14.5 MWh battery by "regenerative braking" with enough energy to drag the empty train cars uphill - didn' quite fully work.
Fortescue launched two battery-electric locomotives this week, rounding out its fleet of 70 diesel-powered machines hauling precious iron-ore from pit to port.
...The locomotive's battery is the equivalent of "200 to 300 average electric vehicles" and capable of powering a refrigerator for 30 years, according to Mr Otranto.
...
The locomotives, purpose-built by Caterpillar subsidiary Progress Rail, boast what Fortescue has called the world's largest land-mobile battery, with a capacity of 14.5 megawatt-hours.The pair will save the company 1 million litres of diesel each year, still just a fraction of the 80 million litres the company consumes annually.
"It is a large undertaking: these take probably a couple of years to manufacture, so once we pull an order, you can see it will take a couple of years to transition the entire fleet," Mr Otranto said.
The company hopes to complete the transition ahead of its "real-zero" deadline of 2030.
...
The locomotives' massive battery will be charged in two ways.The first is via Fortescue's growing renewable energy apparatus, which it says it is expanding aggressively at a rate of more than 3,000 solar panels a day.
The second charging method is through regenerative braking, a mechanism drawing closely from the company's stalled "Infinity Train" concept.
Andrew Forrest had previously touted an in-house electric rail model, developed with Australian engineering firm Downer Group, that generated all the power it needed using the uphill-downhill dynamics of the Pilbara ranges.
The project was canned, however, in September, axing more than 100 staff.
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