Solar Power Systems on Railway Stations

The Government of India  is encouraging installation of solar power systems particularly on rooftops all over the country including on railway stations and airports as well. This was stated by Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy (IC) in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha .  The Minster further stated that so far as aggregate capacity of 17.69 MWp solar power systems have been installed at airports and 1.5 MWp in railway stations . The details are solar power systems installed at airports and railway stations

. Details of solar power systems installed at airports and railway stations

Sl.No.	Name of Airport/Railway Station	Solar power (ground mounted) (MWp)	Solar power rooftop (MWp)
A	Airports
1.	Cochin	13	0.10
2.	IGIA, New Delhi	2.14	--
3.	Mumbai	--	0.65
4.	Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan, Safdarjung Airport	--	0.25
5.	Bhopal	--	0.10
6.	Indore	--	0.10
7.	Bhubaneswar	--	0.10
8.	Raipur	--	0.10
9.	Jaiselmer	--	0.10
10.	Amritsar	--	0.40
11.	Lucknow	--	0.50
12.	Guwahati	--	0.05
13.	Jaipur	--	0.10
	Total	15.14	2.55
B	Railways	--
1.	Katra railway station	--	1.00
2.	Other railway stations	--	0.50
	Total	--	1.50

The Minister further  stated that the Government is promoting use of renewable energy systems all over the country which includes airports and railway stations and other public places in the country for which the following steps are being taken:

·         Ministry of Railways has set a target for setting upof  1,000MWp solar power plants on railway/private land and railway buildings in next 5 years.

·         Financial support in the form of generation based incentives and viability gap funding for solar power projects.

·         Subsidy for grid connected rooftop solar systems, solar pumping systems, concentrated solar thermal and other off-grid solar applications.

·         Fiscal incentives such as accelerated depreciation, concessional custom duty, excise duty exemptions,  income tax holiday for 10 years

·         Concessional loans from Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency

·         Loans under Priority Sector Lending uptoRs. 15 crore for renewable energy projects. 

·         Bank loans as a part of home loan/ home improvement loan for solar rooftop systems

·         Capacity building and public awareness through electronic and print media.