Wind, sun power railway’s green drive

It has already installed 50 MW of renewable energy capacity, including 11 MW solar power and 37 MW wind power. Besides, the Railways has also taken up installation of 6.5 MW and Request for Qualification (RFQ) has been issued by Zonal Railways for 50 MW solar capacities, official said. 

The Railways is planning to install rooftop solar panel on buildings or other establishments which are more than 200 sq m, besides it has decided that for 100 MW tender, corridors would be provided so that even small stations are covered under it. By March 2017, a total of 200 railway establishments would be covered by rooftop solar panels under the 50 MW tender which also include the Mumbai Central and the Nizamuddin station of Delhi, official added. 

For harnessing renewable energy sources for Railway requirements, the mechanism put in place include signing of agreement between Ministry of Railways and Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, finalization of model bid documents for rooftop solar powered plants and others with support from MNRE. 

Based on these model bid documents, Zonal Railways have floated tender documents for installation of solar rooftop plants at Railway premises. 

The Narendra Modi government has set a target of 100 Giga Watt (GW) solar energy by 2022. The target would principally comprise of 40 GW rooftop and 60 GW through large and medium scale grid connected solar power projects.