Solar Panel on Trains Roof: Ready to Implement

Scientists have asked the railways to consider installing rooftop solar power panels on train coaches to meet their electricity needs and curb the country’s diesel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, have sent their proposal to the Rail Coach Factory at Kapurthala, Punjab, after showing through a theoretical study that solar panels can save up to 90,000 litres of diesel per rake per year.

They have estimated that a single rake — made up of five air-conditioned coaches, 12 other coaches, a pantry car and two power cars — relying on rooftop solar panels and making 188 forty-hour trips during a year could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 239 tonnes.

Their study has indicated that the additional cost of the solar panels could be recovered within three years.

“Given our huge oil imports, every possible option to reduce dependence on oil must be explored — this is one such option,” Jayaraman Srinivasan, professor at the Divecha Centre for Climate Change at the IISc and a co-author of the study, told The Telegraph.

Source: http://www.abplive.in/india/2014/06/20/article346944.ece/Solar-roof-for-trains-to-save-fuel#.U6UuOPmSx1A