Indian Railways To Harness The Power Of The Sun

Tasked with the mammoth responsibility of transporting in excess of 23 mn passengers daily in addition to approx 3 mn tonnes of cargo, the Indian Railways is an indispensable arm of the country’s public transport network.

However in recent years, the glittering service record of the Railways has been heavily weighed down by an increasing fuel bill. No surprises then that the Railways is now increasingly turning to solar power generation to power its trains in its bid to reduce pollution and save on fuel costs.

To begin with, solar panels have been installed atop a non-AC coach of the Rewari-Sitapur Express at a cost of INR 4 lakh. The initiative which is already about 17 units of electricity, daily is expected to net the railways an estimated saving of INR 1.25 lakhs p.a in its fuel bill.

Depending on its continued success, the railways plans to run the entire train on solar power, prior to repeating the experiment with other trains, resulting in huge savings in diesel consumption (approx 90,000 litres per train, every year) and a massive reduction in Co2 emissions (about 200 tonnes).

As part of its action plan for the future, the Railways is firming up plans to generate approx 100 MW of solar power. The Northern Railways is also contemplating running the Taj Express and Shan-e-Punjab Express completely on solar power in the near future, while two narrow gauge trains on the Kalka-Shimla and Kangra Valley routes have been fitted with solar panels on a trial basis.

Taking the initiative even further, the Railways plans to equip the roof tops of about 200 busy rail stations with solar panels in addition to 20 of its office buildings and more than 6,000 level crossings by setting up solar energy projects of upto 8.8 MW capacity.

The Railways Ministry has also proposed a joint venture between the Indian Institute of Technology (Chennai) and the Integral Coach factory at Perambur to design and develop special coaches for its trains wherein the interior lighting and cooling facilities will be powered by solar energy, further reducing the dependence on conventional energy sources.

As a direct result of such credible initiatives, the Indian Railways is optimistic about its ability to significantly increase the renewable energy component in its total energy consumption by 2020.

Welspun Renewables has been instrumental in helping India meet her growing energy demands in an efficient and environmentally-friendly manner.

Solar power generation and energy storage can contribute to India’s long term energy security and help achieve its climate change objectives.