Five Ways Indian Railways Plans To Go Net-Zero By 2030

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India Railways plans to go net-zero by 2030.

Indian Railways has one of the largest networks of rail lines in the world. In the last few decades, it successfully transformed from diesel to electric engines. The major source of transport and freight services in the country now is another fuel transition phase.

Slowly, the Indian government entity is moving away from diesel and coal-fired energy and shifting to renewable energy. It is now targeted to go net-zero by the end of 2030. To do the same, the ministry has been rolling out new ways to decarbonize its operations, make its energy more efficient and scale up its own ownership of renewable projects. 

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This is in addition to procuring renewable energy from other clean energy producers from different parts of the country. Saur Energy International tracked the department’s renewable switch plan. Following are the five ways how the department is planning to make it move toward net-zero

1. Increasing energy efficiency

One of the first works the department is doing is moving towards energy-efficient measures. This ensures that the railways’ total energy demand is reduced. This could ensure lesser investments and scale of renewable energy to offset its energy consumption from fossil fuel-based energy.

In a written reply submitted by Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw before the Lok Sabha on March 15, 2023, the minister said that to move towards net-zero, the department is working to improve its energy efficiency. He said that the department is completely shifting towards producing three-phase electric locomotives with regenerative features, use of head of generation (HOG) technology, LED lights in buildings and coaches, and increased use of star-rated appliances.

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Several of its zonal offices, like the Southern Indian Railway office in Hyderabad, use the HOG technology and other energy-efficient measures to decrease their electricity demand. HOG involves using such materials on the central rooftop, which can allow more daylight to enter the office premises. On the other hand, shifting to energy-efficient appliances like LED helps these offices reduce their power consumption.

It is evident that with more energy efficiency, the total demand of the department would come down. This could ensure lesser deployment, scale and investment in new renewable energy capacities and a faster Return of Investment (ROI).

2. Deploying solar and wind projects  

As running its trains with grid electricity often requires a constant supply of energy, the whole operation of railways is energy intensive. This is in addition to the energy needs of railway stations, its zonal, regional, and other offices. 

As per the projected demand for Indian railways for 2029-30, it would require 8,200 MW of energy by that year. It claims that to become a net zero carbon emission entity, it would require a total of 30 GW of total renewable energy capacity by the end of 2029-30. 

Official data of the ministry, as shared by the ministry before the minister during his response in Parliament on the same data, claimed that by the end of February 2023, Indian railways had a total of 147 MW of solar plants and around 103 MW of wind power. Thus it had a total of 250 MW of commissioned renewable energy. Meanwhile, The department has around 2150 MW of RE capacity that has been tied up. 

The ministry thus has been commissioning new power plants to use its generated renewable energy for its operations. For example, it has set up a solar plant at Bina in Madhya Pradesh to provide this solar power to the traction system of Indian Railways. It also uses wind power from wind projects at Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu, and Sangli in Maharashtra.

3. Making Railway stations net-zero 

Now you can see solar panels at most of the bigger railway stations in India. These solar panels could easily be spotted in the railway stations of New Delhi, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam and even in the remote railway stations like Koraput in Odisha. 

The department is increasing the capacities and scale of these rooftop solar panels on the rooftops of railway stations to use this solar power to either partially or fully cater to the energy needs of Indian railway stations. This has now only reduced the operational costs of these railway stations in India and made several of these railway stations net-zero.

The Chief Public Relations Officer from Southern Indian Railway (in Telangana) told Saur Energy that more than 20 railway stations in their jurisdiction have become net-zero by the increased usage of solar and other renewable energy sources. 

4. 100% electrification of its traction 

The department, meanwhile, has also planned to shun diesel-based locomotives. It has now planned to achieve 100 percent electrification of its routes. With the help of this, the department has planned to shun the use of fossil fuel-based liquid fuels, which not only add the cost of added transport burden of these fuels but also emit harmful gases at the source. With the wider deployment of renewables in the system, most of its consumed electricity in the coming days would be derived from renewable sources. Diesel locos are increasingly going to be used for shunting work or in areas where power availability is an issue, 

5. Use of biofuels 

The ministry is also working towards blending 5 percent biodiesel with the diesel used currently in the diesel-operated engines in the system. This has been planned to decarbonize the fuel by blending biodiesels with the fuel until the whole engines and routes in India become electrified.