New Delhi: The Central Railways has initiated the installation of 'Floating Solar Plant of 10 Mega Watt Peak (MWp) capacity' which will be the first ever of its kind in Indian Railways, senior officials of the Railways said on Thursday.
The present monthly power consumption of Central Railway is 236.92 million units for traction work and 9.7 million units for non-traction work but after the commissioning of the solar plant for sources of renewable energy, it is expected that 70 per cent of the traction energy will be green, the officials said.
According to the railway officials, to encourage the building owners and promoters to make energy-efficient buildings and further make improvements to create net zero or net positive energy buildings, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency has introduced labelling programmes called 'Shunya for Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB)' and 'Shunya Plus for Net Positive Energy Buildings' (NPEB).
Considering the dedicated efforts put in by Central Railway towards the conservation of the environment, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency has awarded the Shunya Plus label to five buildings and the Shunya label to two buildings of Central Railway as of date, Railway officials added.
"The Central Railway remains committed to leveraging renewable energy sources, utilising solar power, installation of wind energy resources, providing adequate passenger amenities, and contributing significantly towards Indian Railway's goal of a Green Earth," said Dr Swapnil Nila, Chief Public Relations Officer, Central Railway.
Moving towards its ultimate goal of zero carbon emission by 2030, Central Railway has commissioned 12.05 MWp solar plants by utilising rooftops of railway stations and buildings, out of which, 4 MWp solar plants were provided last year. This has resulted in a saving of Rs 4.62 crore in the year 2023-24 and savings in carbon footprints of 6594.81 MT. There are further plans to install an additional 7 MWp solar plants in the current year, the Railway officials said.
As per the Railways, the steps have been taken to move towards renewable energy. At present, 56.4 of MW wind energy and 61 MW of solar energy are being tapped. Besides this, 180 MW solar and 50 MW wind power is also likely to flow in the current financial year, the CPRO added.
These initiatives are equivalent to saving 2,50,000 trees and the benefit provided by these measures is equal to that of the benefit provided by the same number of trees, Railway officials claimed.
