India is pushing hard on renewable energy and is already 3rd in the world for Solar power production reducing our reliance on Fossil fuels. Now Indian railways has taken another step towards reducing it’s dependence on fossil fuels by deploying India’s first 70m removable solar panel system (28 panels, 15KWp) between railway tracks at Banaras Locomotive Works on Line No 19 in a test run. The pilot project installed removable solar panels on the sleepers (the support beams beneath the tracks) on 70 metres of track and uses an indigenously designed installation procedure to mount solar panels without disrupting train traffic.
The pilot covers 70 metres of track with a 15 KWp installed capacity using 28 panels. It offers a power density of 220 KWp per kilometre and an energy density of 880 units per kilometre per day. Each panel measures 2278 × 1133 × 30 mm, weighs 31.83 kg, and has a module efficiency of 21.31% with 144 half-cut monocrystalline PERC bifacial cells.
With Indian Railways’ network spanning 1.2 lakh kilometres, officials said the technology could be widely deployed on yard lines without the need for land acquisition, as it uses the space between tracks. The estimated capacity is 3.21 lakh units per kilometre per year.
Indian Railways install first solar panels between tracks at BLW Varanasi Photograph: Ministry of Railways
One of the downsides of Solar is the need for a large area to mount the panels and that is frequently a point that detractors of Solar keep bringing up. This method allows us to deploy panels without need of a lot of space and infrastructure to mount the panels since the panels fit neatly between the tracks. I am a little skeptical about the durability of the panels and how long they will last under a track with regular usage but that is what the trial period is for to see if this is a feasible & sustainable plan.
I thought that it would be easier to put the panel above the track & train like a sunshade on the track but that would be more expensive because of the need to put infra to mount the panels etc. Hopefully this test will be successful and we will see the project rolled out on a large scale soon.
The Swiss have been exploring this idea for a few years now and have initiated a parallel pilot with 48 specially designed solar panels that have been laid along a 100-metre stretch of tracks in Buttes, a village in western Switzerland. Both initiatives appear to be running independently but I might be wrong about that.
Its good to see us working towards a more sustainable future using innovative ideas and solutions.
– Suramya