India’s ministry of railways has issued tender documents for 50MW of rooftop solar plants with another 100MW in the pipeline.
Presenting the Railway Budget 2016-17 in Parliament, minister of railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, said the ministry plans to install 1GW of solar in the next five years in order to help achieve the Central government’s overall 100GW by 2022 solar target.
Prabhu also said the ministry will be installing solar micro-grids at remote railway stations, starting with some pilot projects. Energy from these micro-grids will supply power to both railway stations and surrounding rural households.
Prabhu added: “We have commissioned a 25MW wind mill power plant at Jaisalmer and Indian Railways are working towards commissioning 132.5MW in the next year.”