Germany’s Deutsche Bahn is meeting consumer demand by increase renewable energy sources like wind, hydropower, and solar energy from 20% to 28% by 2014 and carbon free by 2050.
The national railway that uses 2% of Germany’s total energy had earlier relied on mostly on nuclear energy, but began decreasing its use even before Japan’s Fukushima crisis. And although this change means that prices for the railway will rise, the majority of customers have approved the price hikes. "It sounds like a bit of ‘green-washing’," said Stefan Kick, an analyst at Silvia Quandt Research, a Frankfurt brokerage. "Obviously costs for renewable energy are going to be higher. Yet if customers are truly willing to pay, it could make sense."
Deutsche Bahn has also partnered with wind and hydroelectric power suppliers while also adding solar panels on the roofs of its 5,700 stations including PV panels on the glass roof of Berlin’s Hauptbahnhof station producing 160,000 kWh a year. The railway has been operating two wind parks in Brandenburg and in July signed a €1.3-billion deal with utility RWE to get 900 million kw/h a year from 14 hydroelectric plants – enough for 250,000 households. In addition, the hydroelectric deal with RWE runs for 15 years and will supply the railways with about 8% of its needs.
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