Mike Curtis (Janus)
T. Thorn Coyle they/themThis is just a reminder that trains in the Netherlands have run on wind power since 2017.
If we want to, we really can have nice things:
https://www.businessinsider.com/wind-power-trains-in-netherlands-2017-6
Betsywait but I thought "sorry honey, we can't watch TV tonight -- no wind" was real
RickG@thorncoyle This is a reminder Netherlands is smaller than West Virginia.
This is a reminder Kansas has more wind power than the Netherlands.
The point? Scaling is hard. We have investments that are getting us there.
Doug 🌈🇨🇦 
@thorncoyle
All passengers must eat beans
All passengers must eat beans
amazon_syren@thorncoyle How cool! :-D
Mark Saltveit@thorncoyle I'm sure you mean "have run on electricity generated by wind power" but I'm hoping someone will photoshop sails from a 17th c. Dutch Fluyt onto a train.
@thorncoyle A couple more interesting factoids:
If Texas was a country, it would rank fifth highest in the world for wind power generation (behind China, US, Germany, and India)
If Iowa was a country, it would rank first in percent of power supplied by wind power at nearly 60%, dwarfing leader Denmark's 40%.
We have amazing capacity to generate wind power in this country, now one of the cheapest forms of energy power generation.
Dave>... trains in the Netherlands
Plenty of room near the Netherlands where the wind can be farmed. Like this photo taken in Vlissingen a couple of years ago - look closely at the horizon.
Having said that, Germany seems to be doing a lot of sun farming, at least near where I live.
Kevin RussellIt is really this simple. Just build it, just build the energy replacements. Just fo it.
OGJester has moved@thorncoyle fun fact: by 1920, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, which operated across the northwest United States, electrified their lines through Montana, Idaho, and Washington. Electricity was generated by hydroelectric dams along the way. The electric locomotives of the post-WWII era were some of the most powerful ever built, and their maintenance costs were almost nothing.
We had zero-carbon railroads a century ago; it’s crazy to say we can’t do it now.
@OGjester I was thinking of the and miles of track ripped up and destroyed. I didn’t know about the hydroelectric power though! Thanks for that info.
@thorncoyle it’s a shame things didn’t play out a little differently for the Milwaukee. Their fatal flaw was that they were too good for modern capitalism - they built solid, their grades/curves were the easiest of any transcontinental railroad, and their planners were looking too far ahead to appease the vulture capitalists of modern times.
infinite_loopy@thorncoyle They also bury all their power lines, something else I'm told isn't feasible here in the US.
@infinite_loopy yeah. The buried power line gets me, too! So much more pleasant than US criss-cross lines everywhere.
@thorncoyle Also extremely unlikely to fall down and start one of the worst massive wildfires in history during a bad windstorm.
Aviva Gary@thorncoyle neat... and I want nice things
Abi SutherlandAnyone reading the replies without looking at the article, watch the embedded video. They strap the head of the Dutch railways to a windmill vane and it’s just silly.