While the Indian Railways has yet to attempt environment-friendly projects, its German counterpart – Deutsche Bahn (DB) – is partnering withIndian company Moser Baer Clean Energy to build a solar park that can generate electricity for 900 households.
Moser Baer Clean Energy has set up a powerful photovoltaic plant on a railway-owned surface in Wittenberge, says the company in a release.
The solar park stands on a former eight-hectare landfill site (about the size of 11 football fields) with a power generation capacity of 3.92 MWp. The electricity generated will be fed into the local grid which will help meet the annual energy needs of about 900 households.
Since 1997, DB has equipped railway station roofs at Uelzen, Hamelin and the Berlin Central Station with solar PV plants.
The DB board has systematised the use of solar energy since late 2010 to identify surfaces in Germany that can be used for renewable energy. As part of this effort, three million square feet of potential space has been identified for installation of solar plants.
DB invites tenders for a suitable location and leases such land to an outside investor, who then builds photovoltaic systems there and sells power.