3MW solar power lights up Howrah station

KOLKATA: Much of the lights at Howrah station do not consume conventional energy.
Considered as one of the busiest railway stations in the country, the Howrah station has now emerged as the one with the largest commissioned solar capacity under Indian Railways. Eastern Railway (ER) has already commissioned a 2,965 KWp grid-connected rooftop solar power project at Howrah. They plan to do more to tap into renewable sources of electricity in order to go green and save costs.

“We are all making an effort to turn Indian Railways into an environmentally sustainable mass transportation system with maximum possible use of alternative forms of clean and renewable energy. This will help in reducing carbon footprint, which is a mission area for the Railways. ER has set an ambitious plan ‘Mission-300 Million Watts (30 MWp) Rooftop Solar Power Plants By 2020’. We have set the path for utilizing solar energy from 30 million watts to 300 million watts and 3 million units to 30 million units power generation per year from 2018 to 2020,” said Nikhil Kumar Chakraborty, CPRO, ER.
According to him, this will generate alternative source of renewable energy that will take care of nearly 15% of the total energy consumption in non-traction areas. Of the 180 million units consumed annually, 30 million units will come through such sources. At present, 55 million watts rooftop solar plants have been commissioned across ER. The process is on to install additional solar power plants that would generate 245 million watts at different locations.