Big eco-friendly achievement! Indian Railways’ Vijayawada station in the state of Andhra Pradesh became the first railway station in the country to be covered with 130 kWp solar panels. According to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, now 18 percent of the total power consumption of the railway station will be from this solar energy. The environment-friendly move will result in annual savings of over Rs 8 lakh, and it will also reduce carbon emissions, the minister further said. Vijayawada Divisional Railway Manager P. Srinivas had virtually commissioned the 65 kWp building-integrated photovoltaics solar cover. The new addition takes the solar photovoltaic cover-over platform capacity of the Vijayawada railway station to 130 kWp. The solar roof cost an amount of Rs 62 lakh to set up, according to reports.
The national transporter plans to be a Net Zero Carbon Emitter by the year 2030. Earlier, Indian Railways had said that for meeting its traction power requirement, it plans to set up solar plants on unused vacant railway land. Indian Railways plans to install 20 GW land based solar plants. In order to further proliferate these pilot projects, the national transporter has initially planned to set up 3 GWp of land based solar plants in three phases.
Further, Indian Railways also eyes to take up a storage based solar project. According to railways, this project is taken up to manage peak demand management and solar peak generation management. Besides, a pilot project to procure renewable power in the round the clock mode to the tune of 150 MW is being planned by the national transporter as well.
Meanwhile, Indian Railways has also completed 100 per cent LED replacement in all railway stations, railway installations and buildings across the country. Also, all residential quarters of Indian Railways have been converted to LED lighting.