Indian capital city’s
pride, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, has earned yet another achievement by
commissioning its first rooftop solar power project at one of its stations.
The project, with an installed
capacity of 500 kW, is expected to start generating power from next month. The
project is located at a station near the Delhi international airport.
The
project will be commissioned and operated under the RESCO — renewable energy
services company — model where the Delhi Metro will provide the site for the
project while the developer will invest the capital cost for project
development. The project operation and maintenance cost will also be borne by
the developer. The project has been hailed as the largest rooftop project in
the capital under the RESCO model.
Delhi
Metro has signed a power purchase agreement with the project developer.
However, the terms of this agreement have not been made public. Delhi Metro
might get power free of cost after the developer has recovered its capital
investment.
The
Delhi Metro Rail Corporation intends to implement similar pilot projects at a few
stations before replicating the same across all stations and yards on the
network. With the support of GIZ, the DMRC found that its stations and yards
can accommodate solar power projects with capacity between 90 kW and 2,500 kW
with a network-wide potential of about 52 MW.
The
study also suggested the various monetization avenues that DMRC may consider
with respect to these power plants. The power generated could be used for
in-house use at the stations, sold to nearby advertising hoardings or used for
charging electric vehicles in the near the future.
Electricity
is a major component of Delhi Metro’s operations. The lifeline of India’s
capital city came to a halt during the infamous July 2012 blackout in north
India. Due to the commercial nature of its operations, the Delhi Metro attracts
a significantly high electricity tariff from the city’s power distribution
companies. With a potential to install 52 MW, DMRC could end up generating
about 86.5 million units of electricity every year. At current power tariff,
DMRC would save about $8 million (₹47.6 crore) every year.
DMRC
has been known to take innovative sustainability measures. It has implemented
an energy recovery mechanism in the braking system of its trains. It was also
the first project of its kind to be registered under the UN Clean Development
Mechanism for cutting emissions by replacing a large number of private
vehicles as means of transport. Recently, it allowed college
students to install micro wind turbines at some of the metro stations in a pilot
project to harness the wind generated from the fast-moving trains.