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About SunTrain
SunTrain is solving the transmission crisis stalling clean energy and industrial expansion in the US. Rather than waiting twenty years or more for new high-voltage lines, SunTrain moves gigawatt-hours of stored electricity in battery railcars over the nation’s existing rail network. Each SunTrain functions as alternative electrical transmission infrastructure, displacing natural gas peaker plants and bypassing the real estate constraints, permitting problems and interconnection delays that plague modern transmission development.
SunTrain and the sprawling railroad system provides new energy distribution channels for independent power producers, utilities, regional transmission authorities, substation nodes, and former fossil power plants while bypassing congested transmission lines and deploying utility-scale energy storage. Following a $2.25M Seed round in 2022, SunTrain built and operated a proof-of-concept railcar, logging over 10,000 miles on Union Pacific tracks across California and Colorado for live discharge demonstrations.
The company is now raising a $3.5M Seed Extension to immediately deploy its first commercial-scale 17.2 MWh Gen.1 battery railcar. Simultaneously, SunTrain is preparing a $10M Series A to deliver a 20-car, 344 MWh pilot project in partnership with Xcel Energy, connecting curtailed wind and solar in Pueblo, CO to a defunct coal power plant in downtown Denver.
SunTrain’s founders have led the development of over $2B in electrical infrastructure.
Their new goal: execute on a vetted pipeline of 32 GWh of utility-linked railroad energy projects spanning multiple utilities and several merchant independent power plant opportunities. With proprietary charging and discharge IP, exclusive rail classifications, and off-balance-sheet project financing available, SunTrain offers an immediate and capital-efficient path to energy storage and delivery in a transmission-constrained world.
SunTrain Vision & Mission
Vision
During the heyday of coal, railroads were referred to as rolling conveyor belts because hundreds of daily coal trains served over 9000 coal mines and 1800 coal power plants. SunTrain is actively repurposing the more than 140,000 miles of freight railroad networks in the United States to accelerate grid modernization and transmission capacity expansion without a 20-year timeline.
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Mission
SunTrain reimagines energy transmission and storage by leveraging existing rail infrastructure to deliver scalable, grid-connected solutions that allow energy developers to locate generation and interconnection around railroad access instead of available transmission capacity.