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SOLAR POWERED TRAINS IN INDIA |
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by Neha Swaminathan | 11-06-2015 20:51
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Indian Railways (IR) consumed over 17.5 billion kWh of electricity during 2013-14. This is about 4000 MW —almost 1.8% of India?s power generation capacity.
The Integral Coach Factory of IR had announced a project in association with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras to design coaches that will draw solar power for lighting and cooling. It now introduced a new coach of Rewari-Sitapur passenger train run by solar panels installed on its roof. This is a major development for Indian Railways to go green. Indian Railways plans 1 GW solar power capacity
Each coach needs about six thousand US Dollars to be equipped with solar panels. Evaluation of cost benefit is being done to know the economic viability. The solar panels generate about 17 units of power in a day which runs the lighting system in the coach. About a week ago, it announced promising results from its experiments on solar powered coaches.
Currently Railways will be installing solar panels on non air conditioned coaches only. According to the plan, railways proposes to install solar power plants of about 8.8 MW capacity at railway stations, railway office buildings and level crossing gates throughout the country.
Railway Minister has also emphasised on promotion of sustainable development and reducing dependence on fossil fuels. The generation of solar supply will help railways supply power at remote locations and saving in diesel due to reduced running of diesel generators.
With a huge network of Railway services, the investment required to go green is huge and will also bring in substantial savings on fossil fuel. In the earlier move by Indian Railways to allow passengers to bring an SMS/electronic version of their ticket instead of the paper tickets, they saved more than 1000 tonnes of paper every year. |
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6 Comments
Great initiative for the Indian government! I am thinking that actually the idea of bringing tickets in form of SMS/electronic version is simple, but great. Maybe this method could be used also for tickets booked online of any other kind (e.g. airport, cinema, theater) Tons of trees would be saved that way :)
Posted 15-06-2015 01:19
It is really a good news that our Neighboring country India has stepped forward towards green energy and sustainability. Though the initial cost for solar power seems much higher but on long term basis it is economically viable and above all, eco- friendly.
I hope their mission goes successful :)
Thank you for sharing dear Neha :)
Posted 13-06-2015 15:20
Glad to know about electronic version of ticket
Thanks for the report Neha
Posted 13-06-2015 15:10
India has such a huge network of train
if this project could be carried out throughout all over. Just imagine tons of energy saving 😊
Posted 13-06-2015 15:08
South East Asian countries like India get abundant sunshine so are rich sources of solar energy and must tap it's potential to reduce the country's reliance on fossil fuels and harmful sources of energy. This announcement is a good news but let's hope that the project will proceed without any political or any other hindrance and would complete without long delays. All the best. It is good to hear that Indian govt is talking and deciding on using more and more renewable sources of energy.
Posted 12-06-2015 02:09
It is great to know about this project of designing coaches that will draw solar power for lighting and cooling!!! Thanks for sharing mate. =)
Posted 11-06-2015 23:57