NRELs Rail Optimization Software Is Putting Freight Electrification on the Fast Track [Video]

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Collaboration With Parallel Systems Quantifies Benefits of Autonomous, Battery-Electric Rail Vehicles

For more than a century, American freight trains—responsible for moving a fifth of the nation’s cargo—have run nearly exclusively on carbon-based fuels. But that could change in the coming decade, as railways eye ambitious federal clean-energy goals that call for investment in electric locomotives and infrastructure supporting zero-emission freight movement.

Already, a collaboration between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Parallel Systems, a Los Angeles-based autonomous electric rail car startup, is poised to put freight decarbonization on the fast track.

Propelling Progress

Parallel Systems’ groundbreaking battery-electric rail cars represent a potential transformation for the rail industry.

And rather than being linked by heavy metal couplers, like traditional freight trains, Parallel’s autonomous rail cars are capable of seamlessly grouping and separating themselves while traveling. That allows them to keep train crossings clear by …