The South Western Railways (SWR) has installed solar panels on the roof of its stations, terraces of its buildings and at level-crossing gates across Karnataka to harness renewable energy for its power needs.
Solar panels are installed on the roof top of 128 major stations across the zone, including Hubli, Bengaluru, Mysuru, Hospet, Gadag and Ballari, on the terraces of 7 buildings at Hubli, Bengaluru and Mysuru.
Photo voltaic cell lights have been installed at 221 level-crossing gates across the zone. Solar panels have also been set up on top of workshops and sheds in the zone, spanning the state.
Hubli, where the zonal railway is headquartered, is about 400 km northwest of Bengaluru in the southern state.
The SWR has provided 4.37-megawatt peak (MWp) plants on developer mode and 165 kilowatt peak KWp) solar plant across the zone.
Tapping and using solar energy will enable them to save Rs 1.88 crore in electricity bills in this fiscal (2020-21) year.
The zonal railway also plans to set up land-based solar plants at track side and railway vacant lands to harness sun’s energy.
Rail Energy Management Company Ltd, a subsidiary of the Indian Railways, has floated a tender for land-based solar plants of 20MWp on vacant lands and 8.3MWp on sides of tracks across the zone.
On all-India level, the railways plan to source 1,000MW of solar power and 200MW of wind power by 2021-22 across the country.
About 500MW will be generated from roof-top solar panels on buildings and 500MW from land-based solar plants to meet traction and non-traction requirements.
This is a Syndicate News-Feed, edited by Clean-Future Team