Solar-Powered Trains Come To India, Largest Rail Network In Asia

India and trains go hand in hand, the same way the country and heat are inseparable concepts. Why not combine all of these things then? That’s exactly what has happened, with Indian Railways turning up the heat in their experiments involving solar-powered trains. Although the solution is not perfect, it is still a huge improvement over using only diesel-powered engines.

Indian Railways operates trains that go all over India and some other parts of Asia, with its trains guzzling a total of 2.6 billion liters of diesel in 2014, Quartz reports. That’s a huge amount of carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere of one of the most polluted countries on the planet.

To address this issue, the company is trying out a new approach of fitting solar panels atop trains as they speed along the Indian countryside. Each coach will have 16 panels on the roof and they will be responsible for powering appliances and amenities.

Usually, even turning on the lights in the trains would rely on the diesel engines themselves. With the cleaner, more efficient options in solar panels, this won’t be the case anymore.

Doing so will save the railway over 21,000 liters of fuel each year as well. That’s nowhere near good enough when compared to the total consumption of the trains on a yearly basis, but it’s a start.

For now, the panels are being fitted onto one train called the Diesel Electric Multiple Unit (DEMU), Futurism reports. The company is planning on adding more trains to the list of outfitted units down the road.

All in all, this is yet another example of a country trying its best to reduce its carbon footprint and roll back the pollution that its population is currently experiencing. India has been implementing numerous efforts to become a world leader in green energy and revamping it railway system would certainly go a long way towards making that happen.