India has announced that 7000 railway stations across the country will be powered by solar energy. According to plans laid out in India’s latest union budget, almost every railway station in the country will soon be powered by solar. India’s Finance Minsiter Arun Jaitley said that the project “is proposed to feed at least 7,000 stations with solar power in the medium term.” The project is a part of the Indian Railways’ mission to harness 1,000 megawatts (MW) of solar energy by 2020.
Under the project, stations will be fitted with rooftop solar power systems in addition to the setting up of solar power plants through developer mode along with a long term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) by the railways. In 2016, Indian Railways announced its partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to set up 5 gigawatts (GW) of solar power capacity on top of its plans to launch a tender for 150 MW of rooftop systems.
The financing will be provide from tax coal applied to both coal mined in India and imported from elsewhere. Until now India has collected USD 1.8 billion.
Currently, India started the work to set up rooftop solar power systems at 300 stations and soon the project will be implemented for the next 2000 stations. According to the Minister of Railways, in 2015, India had 7,137 railway stations.
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