Mysuru railway station set to tap solar energy

To reduce dependency on conventional sources of energy, rooftop solar panels have been installed at Mysuru railway station platforms and division office. The ongoing work is scheduled to be completed by February 15.

Divisional Railway Manager, Atul Gupta says, “Under the green energy programme, the station platform and building will be used to generate 210kWP of solar energy, 100kWP from divisional office and remaining 110kWP from railway platforms. Since we don’t have back-up facility, we may not able use the solar power during night hours. This will, however, help to cut down nearly 30% of cost spent on electricity. The project was taken up on Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis. The investment has been made by a private player, we will buy power for a period of 25 years under a power purchase agreement. After 25 years, the solar power system will be transferred to the railways.”

Mysuru Central Railway Workshop at Ashokapuram is already generating 500kWP solar energy after having installed solar roof top system in December. According to official sources, “Solar panels have been installed over an area of about 3,218 square meter on the rooftop of different sections of the workshop and has 1,562 solar photovoltaic modules. This caters to the entire energy needs of the workshop. The excess power is fed into the grid operated by CESC (Chamundeswhari Electricity Supply Corporation), under power purchase agreement. The solar energy generated and exported to grid ultimately reduces the energy consumption and the carbon emission. This project not only reduces the cost of energy, but in the long run it also reduces adverse impact on the environment.”
In 2015, Indian Railways had drawn a road map to reduce the use of conventional energy and planned to tap non-conventional energy in a phased manner to reduce carbon emission and improve the financial performance of railways.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes