India is committed to reduce its carbon emissions and adopt renewable energy to help save the planet amidst the climate crisis. In order to explore opportunities under renewable energy in railways, Indian Railways and Railway Energy Management Company Ltd. (REMCL) – a joint venture of Ministry of Railways & RITES Ltd. organised a Renewable Energy Investors’ Meet on January 9, 2020, in New Delhi.
The motive behind this meeting was to spread the information about the available prospects of renewable energy in Indian Railways. The experience of developers and benefits of partnering with Indian Railways were highlighted during this meet.
Image: Global Railway Review
Leading financers and institutions including Department for International Development, Government of United Kingdom (DFID), Asian Development Bank (ADB), GIZ from Germany, AFD from France, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB) attended the Investors’ Meet along with leading organisations in renewable energy such as Softbank Energy, L&T, Renew Power, Sembcorp, Amplus Solar, SunEdison, and Gensol.
The group shared their expectations of being partners with Indian Railways through its journey of renewable energy. The investors appreciated the efforts in leading the development of renewable energy in the country and promised strong support to Indian Railways on the journey of going green and acquiring the goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2030.
Shri Rajesh Tiwari, Member Traction, Railway Board, was the chairperson of the meet. Mr. Tiwari presented an outline of Railways’ power scenario and the scopes for different stake holders in the renewable energy sector. He also talked about the efforts taken to reduce the cost of power procurement and the benefits of signing Power Purchase Agreements with Indian Railways such as low off take risk and clarity on roof rights.
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Shri Rajeev Mehrotra, Chairman, REMCL, Shri Sudhir Kumar Saxena, CEO, REMCL, Smt. Manju Gupta, Additional Member, Electrical, and other senior officials of Railway Board also attended the meet.
Recently, the Indian Railways has invited bids for 47 MW rooftop solar projects and 249 MW of wind solar hybrid projects. The Investors’ Meet was supported under the Power Sector Reforms Programme, as a part of cooperation agreed in the MoU signed between UK’s DIFD and Indian Railways on December 2, 2019.
Indian Railways is also planning to install 1GW of solar PV and 200MW of wind power by 2021-22 across its Zonal Railways and Production Units. According to minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal, the company has already installed 99MW of solar power and 103MW of wind power as of October 31, 2019.
The South Central Railway has already installed solar panels at stations, service buildings, and other locations in order to conserve energy.
One of the world’s largest employers and huge power consumer, Indian Railways will install 500MW across rooftops of its railway buildings and another 500MW of ground-mount PV. Indian Railways aims to become the world’s first fully green-powered rail network within the next decade.
Via: Press Release