ReNew Power Ventures, a renewable energy development company, won bids for 5 MW solar installations across various locations for the Indian Railways. The company will be investing close to Rs 35 crore in these projects which will supply energy to Railways through a 25-year power purchase agreements.
This is the first set of allocations by Indian Railways to any company under PPA mode. Out of the total 5 MW allocation under various zones, 1 MW has been allocated by North Central Railway division for Allahabad & Kanpur, 1 MW has been allocated by South Western Railway division for Bengaluru & Hubli. Another 1 MW has been allocated by East Coast Railway division for Vishakhapatnam and 2 MW has been allocated by South Eastern Railway division for Kharagpur, Adra, Chakradharpur and Jamshedpur.
Installations will be carried out to a large extent on station buildings, railway offices, workshops amongst other building premises. In total, these projects will generate more than 7 million units of power annually and offset over 6000 tonnes of carbon emissions every year. The transaction will also result in significant saving in energy cost for Indian Railways without any investment.
ReNew Power has close to 3,000 MW of commissioned and under-construction clean energy capacity across Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.
By Baishakhi Dutta
