Can the London Underground run on solar power?
And how much power would that take?
It’s no secret that running the Tube requires a huge amount of electricity. The Underground uses around 1.6 terawatt-hours annually. That’s enough to power almost 600,000 homes for a whole year. No wonder TfL is the single largest electricity consumer in London.
But that’s about to change. TfL and SSE are developing new solar installations that will supply renewable energy directly to the Tube network through a private connection, bypassing the National Grid.
Once constructed, the solar panels will deliver up to 65,000 megawatt-hours of energy, which is around two-thirds of what the Victoria line uses per year — enough to power 25,000 homes.
This is part of TfL’s and Mayor Sadiq Khan’s plan for a net-zero London by 2030. Over 25 years, these solar installations could save more than 27,000 tonnes of CO₂, which is equal to the emissions from 33,000 New York–London flights.
Another part of this plan is gradually replacing all diesel-powered buses — which I covered in my previous video — and even replacing lighting within Tube stations and trains with LEDs, which use 60% less energy than traditional lighting.
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Can the London Underground run on solar power?
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