Conventional wisdom tells us we need power plants to operate things like factories and railways, but the Imperial College London begs the differ. Along with climate charity 10:10, they plan to investigate the use of track-side solar panels to power trains to connect solar panels directly to the lines that provide power to trains, a move that would bypass the electricity grid in order to more efficiently manage power demand from trains. Such a move would also open up thousands of new sites to renewable developments by removing the need to connect to the grid. The news comes just days after it became known that Dutch state-owned railway company NS’s passenger trains are now being powered entirely by wind energy.