Railways Completes Solar Installations at 960 Stations, 550 Lined up Next

Indian Railways has completed the task of installing solar power plants at 960 stations and ordered solar power panels for 550 more stations.

In a bid to achieve the objective of 100 percent self-sustainability for all power needs, the Indian Railways has completed the task of installing solar power plants at 960 stations and ordered solar power panels for 550 more stations.

A Railway Ministry spokesperson said the national transporter had solarised more than 960 stations till now, adding orders have been placed for an additional 198 MW solar rooftop capacity for 550 stations which were under execution.

The Indian Railways’ plans were part of its objective to become a net-zero carbon emitter by 2030 as it has a land pool of more than 51,000 hectares.

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The Railways plans to generate 33 billion units by 2030, 10 billion more than its current requirement. It also plans to install solar plants of 20 GW capacity by utilising its vacant land by 2030.

The official told IANS that the Railways was set to achieve 100 percent electrification by 2023. Indian Railways was committed to utilise solar energy for meeting its traction power requirement and become a complete green mode of transportation, the Railway Ministry added.

This was in line with the recent directive by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to solarise railway stations and utilise vacant railway land for renewable energy (RE) projects, the official added.

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The national transporter had invited bids for three solar projects on vacant railway land parcels and land parcels along railway tracks have already been invited by the Railway Energy Management Company Ltd (REMCL), a PSU of Indian Railways.

The latest was issued in July when REMCL tendered for setting up of 1 GW ground-mounted solar power plants on railway land along the railway tracks pan India. The last date for submission of proposals on the tender is September 2, 2020. The scope of work for the selected project developers will broadly include the design, build, finance, operation, long– term maintenance and transfer of assets for solar PV project and the supply of electricity to Railways under long-term fixed-rate PPA.

At the back end of April, RITES limited had issued another tender for setting up of 1 GW of land-based solar photovoltaic (PV) power projects on land owned by the Indian Railways. The scope of work for the selected bidders will include (but not be limited to) design, procurement, installation, supply, testing and commissioning of the grid-connected solar power projects on various zonal railways land across India.