Challenge for World’s Biggest Robot Trains Is Going Electric
- Trials in Australia iron ore hub to help battery-power shift
- Move away from diesel is bid to cut greenhouse gas emissions
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Rio Tinto Group is preparing for trials of battery-powered locomotives in Australia, where it uses giant autonomous trains — the world’s largest and longest robots — to transport iron ore across the vast Outback.
Converting its 2.5-kilometer (1.6-mile) long trains to electric would help trim the producer’s use of diesel, a key source of its industrial pollution, and help spur efforts to cut direct greenhouse gas emissions 50% by 2030.