The Barcelona metro recycles braking energy to charge electric cars

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The Barcelona subway stops, the doors open and travelers exit to continue their daily activities.

What they don’t know is that, while they do that, a burst of energy is sent to the surface to charge an electric vehicle.

Barcelona has brought together a suite of clean energy technologies to help make public transport greener, while also doing its part to combat climate change and aid Europe’s difficult transition to the private electric vehicle market.

Sixteen stations of the Barcelona metro system are part of its new MetroCharge project, through which the energy from the brakes of the underground trains is used to power the convoys and the stations themselves, while the rest is sent through cables to the surface to power charging stations for private vehicles.

Bernardo Espinoza, a 49-year-old engineer, travels daily by subway. You also own a hybrid car and just discovered you have a new place to plug it in.

Espinoza says he likes having another option to plug in his electric car, noting that if it’s powered by the subway brakes, it’s much better.

Regenerative brakes have been in trains for decades and are also used in some cars. They consist of an electric motor that captures the energy used in the braking action that would be lost as heat in conventional brakes. That energy can be used immediately to accelerate the vehicle or, in the case of the Barcelona metro, sent over cables to supply electricity to the station or for electric car chargers.

Álvaro Luna, a professor of electrical engineering at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, said the system is innovative in that it allows recycled energy to be redirected to specific local uses, in this case to power electric cars parked nearby. That, he says, increases efficiency.

Making better use of energy has become a key pillar to reduce planetary warming. Last year, nations at the UN climate talks and the Group of 20 most industrialized countries agreed to double energy efficiency by 2030.

Jordi Picas, head of systems for TMB, Barcelona’s metro, said the public company estimates it can recover the 7.3 million euros ($7.6 million) spent on MetroCharge, which includes funds from the European Union. in four years thanks to the reduction of energy costs.

The system, which also includes solar panels, provides all the energy needs of 28 of the 163 subway stations, from lights to elevators and ventilation systems, and saves 6% of the total energy expended by the subway, according to Picas. An average of 2.3 million people take the Barcelona metro on any given weekday.

The ingenious program comes as questions arise over the speed and cost of the EU’s green transition, as the 27-member bloc seeks to phase out combustion engines and remain a world leader in environmental protection standards.

Spain, like other Mediterranean countries, is feeling the impact of climate change, experts say, with prolonged droughts and extreme weather events such as the recent devastating floods in Valencia expected to increase in the coming years.

In 2021, Spain’s government launched an ambitious electric car plan backed by EU post-pandemic transition funds. Public incentives have managed to encourage private investment, such as last week’s announcement by Chinese battery maker CATL and automaker Stellantis to build a lithium battery factory in Zaragoza. The plan also included help for consumers.

But Spain has not been immune to industry stumbles across Europe as the EU imposes tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles to try to help continental automakers catch up.

Spain, with its large extensions for a western European country, faces the additional challenge of deploying charging stations. The country now has 37,000 charging points, below the target of 100,000 that the government had set for now in 2021, according to the Spanish Association of Automobile and Truck Manufacturers (ANFAC).

So while the Barcelona metro concept can help chart a course for urban planners, there is still a lot of work to be done.

Ángel García said he agreed with the spirit of the initiative as he plugged his hybrid taxi into a charging point powered by the Barcelona metro.

But he also said the government should do more to help buyers purchase electric cars.