DMRC solar power project makes way to UN convention

NEW DELHI:The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s (DMRC’s) initiative to install rooftop solar power plants at its premises has become the first ever Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Project to be registered with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for any Metro or railway system in the world.

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 27

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s (DMRC’s) initiative to install rooftop solar power plants at its premises has become the first ever Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Project to be registered with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for any Metro or railway system in the world.

The project has been registered under the “small scale category” for those with an installed solar capacity of less than 15 MW. The DMRC run rooftop solar facilities have an installed capacity of 14,983 MWp which translates to an estimated electricity generation of 19,687 MWh annually.

A total of 31 grid connected rooftop solar power facilities across the stations, depots, receiving sub stations and residential colonies of the DMRC were identified for this project.

The project is expected to generate an estimated 18,506 CERs (Carbon credits), though the exact number of CERs will be available only after verification audit scheduled mid next year. The project was registered in a record time of eight months, on March 25, 2017, about two months ahead of schedule.

This is the fifth climate change project to be successfully registered by the DMRC. Two more projects are in the stage of registration presently. The Delhi Metro had earlier been certified by the United Nations (UN) as the first Metro rail and rail-based system in the world to get Carbon credits for reducing Green House gas emissions as it has helped to reduce pollution levels in the city by 6.3 lakh tons every year, thus helping in reducing global warming.