Alongside wind and water energy, solar energy is one of the renewable energy sources in Deutsche Bahn's traction current mix. DB intends to continuously increase this share of green electricity. Today, renewable energy already accounts for 69.8 percent of DB's traction current mix. By 2030, it will be 80 percent. By 2038, 100 percent of all DB traction power is to come from renewable energy sources.
Solar energy for DB trains
To achieve this goal, DB is increasingly investing in the purchase of renewable power from solar plants. The new solar plant in Wasbek, Schleswig-Holstein, has been on the grid since April 2023 and is feeding solar power directly into the German rail traction power network for the first time. The plant, which DB commissioned with the company ENERPARC, is around 40 hectares in size and is expected to supply around 38 gigawatt hours of renewable power annually.
Since 2021, DB´s energy portfolio contains solar-generated electricity from the new Gaarz solar farm near Plau am See in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The 90 hectar solar park supplies green electricity for DB trains for 30 years. And since the beginning of 2024, a further 15 large solar parks spread across the whole of Germany have been supplying Deutsche Bahn with renewable power under six purchase agreements.
Roofs with guaranteed sunshine
DB's roofs are already playing a key role, as they capture the power of the sun and use it to produce clean electricity. Some of DB's workshops, stations and warehouses are currently equipped with solar panels. In Leipzig, for example, a photovoltaic system has been installed on a total of three parts of the ICE depot building. The electricity generated from the sun is stored on site in a so-called second-life battery storage system made from disused electric car batteries and used when the depot's energy requirements are particularly high or the sun is not shining. The battery storage system and the PV system with an output of up to 250 kilowatts can cover around a quarter of the ICE plant's electricity requirements.
In addition, DB has installed high-performance solar systems at three depot locations in Nuremberg, Duisburg and Karlsruhe in 2023. The system in Nuremberg has already been connected to the grid and is the largest installed system with an output of 340 kilowatts peak. It is expected to generate around 315 megawatt hours per year. The plants in Duisburg and Karlsruhe will soon go into operation. Many more solar plants are currently being planned and will be realized in the coming years.
DB has also been providing investors with land and roof spaces where they can install their own solar panels.
