The Diplomat in Spain

De la Serna and Nadal during the inauguration./ Photo: @idlserna

The Diplomat. 09/01/2018

The ministers of Energy and Public Works and Development, Álvaro Nadal and Íñigo de la Serna, attended, yesterday in Asturias, the first pilot test of railway propelled by liquefied natural gas (LNG) of Europe and the first one of the world in the passenger railway sector.

The project, led by Renfe along with Gas Natural Fenosa and Enagás and with the collaboration of Bureau Veritas, intends to “verify the viability of a solution with potential environmental and economic advantages for the traffic being currently developed with diesel drive in Spain”, according to information provided by the Government.

The project is part of the plan of energy efficiency and decarbonisation in which Renfe and Adif are working, and it is included in the strategy to promote the Alternative Energy Vehicle (AEV) in Spain for the period 2014-2020, with which it intends to implement the European directive 2014/94 on implementation of an infrastructure for alternative fuel in the EU.

“The plan of decarbonisation and energy efficiency of the railway transport, the most sustainable in absolute terms, is key to the improvement of the general system of transport in Spain from the environmental and energy point of view”, the Executive pointed out.

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The project is included in the future Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition

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The project “is in line with the objectives of the future Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition being prepared by the Government” and that “will mark the way to reach international commitments relating to climate change and efficient energy”, it continued.

In the compliance of the objectives of emissions’ reduction, the railway plays a fundamental role, since, according to data of the Ministry of Energy, trains consume almost half the electricity used in the Spanish transport sector.

Nevertheless, according to the Russian state agency Sputnik, this is not the first similar project being implemented in the world, since, in 2013, the Russian city of Briansk set in motion the first engine TEM19-001, which worked with liquefied natural gas. “The Russian builders tested the engine in 2016 in the Railway of Sverdlovsk”, it added.