Comments by "Helmuth Schultes" (@helmuthschultes9243) on "American Reacts to Australia's "Infinity Train" No Fuel, No Charging" video.

  1. And a significant CO2 reduction too. There is also considerable saving on train brakes as with massive regenerative braking there is minimal need for conventional brake pads to handle many thousands of tons of ore down hill. Wear down of pads train wheels alone will be reduced massively along with down time for maintenance brake pad exchange and wheel replacements. Beyond that is that the train is now braked on board not by friction from wheels to track rails, often for steeper sections even demanding sand onto tracks to keep wheel to track fraction high and not just slipping. Well the tracks now will have considerable longer life, as even will the rail stays having less forces from needing to carry the braking forces horizontally in same transient affected manner. Longer rail line life and lower maintenance of even that infrastructure system.
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  2. The location of the iron mine in the Pilbara region of WA of course is ideal for solar power, with large area available for solar cells and very commonly major sun availability for most of the year, also being in tropical near equator region actually above Tropic of Capricorn southern limit of solar travel for our summer, northern winter, so even has much time for solar overhead or close to overhead maximum power capture. Maybe only for short times needing diesel generator supplementing for tropical storms and cloudy conditions likely only under 10% daytime though storage needed as mines operate nearly 24/7. So truck may need some top up power even in the night. Still making huge gains towards zero emissions, maybe improving trucks and storage batteries the 2% deficite can even be reduced further or be so small that the number of trips overnight can be run on stored power alone. But recharging full capacity in early daytime is too costly in time vs work capacity so remains difficult. All a great future benefit. Cost savings should be very good, though rather than increased profit, allows cost of the ore sold to be kept lowered adding to competitiveness with mines in say Brazil.
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