Britain's new high-speed railway line, HS1, will be the first in the country to be powered wholly by renewable energy. The line, which will link London, the Channel Tunnel and Kent, will buy REGO certificates from Npower Business Solutions, its electricity supplier, to ensure that its total energy needs are supplied by clean sources such as wind and solar energy.
The move will mean that HS1 will be able to operate with zero-carbon emissions for the power it uses across its trains and railway stations alike.
Dyan Crowther, the CEO of HS1 Ltd, said that the high-speed line would become the Green Gateway to the UK and Europe as a whole. As the only high-speed railway in the UK, it would provide considerable environmental benefits, Crowther explained, by allowing travellers to slash their carbon footprint whilst enjoying reliable, safe and fast travel across Britain and abroad.
Crowther added that HS1 would help to provide a sustainable answer to the topic of green travel, especially as environmental topics come to the forefront of government attention once again after the Covid crisis.
The REGOs are now secure and the supply contract will be awarded by March 2022 - at the point when the high-speed line becomes 100% powered by green energy. The management company behind the line has also pledged that it will become completely carbon-neutral within a decade.
Working in partnership with Southeastern High Speed and Eurostar, HS1 plans to lower the carbon footprint of its passengers by 25% and to slash the energy usage on every train journey by 10%.
A government spokesperson said that it was completely committed to delivering a cleaner, greener and more efficient railway network for the UK as part of Britain's plans to be entirely carbon-neutral by 2050.