Complete decarbonization of the electricity demand of Indian Railways (IR) – transitioning from the current, largely fossil-fuel based energy mix to clean energy like solar and wind power – is likely to have multiple benefits.

IR is currently the world’s second largest railway network and is the single largest consumer of electricity in India, consuming about 18 TWh per year, or roughly 2% of the country’s total power generation. IR also consumes 2.6 billion liters of diesel annually, or 3.2% of the total diesel consumption of the transport sector in India.

Indian Railways (IR) is currently the world’s second largest railway network and is the single largest consumer of electricity in India, consuming about 18 TWh per year, or roughly 2% of the country’s total power generation.

This is a case study on 100MW Rajasthan Sun Technique CSP plant, the first linear Fresnel CSP plant in India and the largest in the world. It finds that while Indian solar policy was essential to build this innovative plant it was not enough for India to deploy CSP plants at the desired level and speed.