Indian Railways Install Parabolic Solar Concentrator for Supply of Hot Water; Check Details

The Indian Railways, aiming at curbing the carbon footprint and aligning with the Make in India policy of the government of India, has replaced electric water heaters with Parabolic Solar Concentrator based heating systems for the maintenance of various components of trains. The southern zone of the Indian Railways, in co-operation with Goldenrock Workshop, a subsidiary of Southern Railways, has installed the solar concentrator for a smooth supply of hot water. The hot water will be used for various purposes such as cleaning and soaking of various rolling stock such as axle boxes, bogie frames, brake rigging, etc., stated the press release.

The first-of-its-kind water heating system consists of six parabolic mirrors spanned across 16 square meters. The arrangement of these parabolic mirrors arched and facing the sun is called Scheffler concentrator. The reflectors are coupled with receivers which send necessary signals for the heating system to function.

The newly-installed system manufactured at the Goldenrock Workshop is capable of heating the water up to 82 degrees Celsius. An indicator installed in the water tank will display the temperature of the outlet. Moreover, the water tank and the connecting pipes will be covered with adequate insulation so as to avoid heat loss.

In order to utilize the sun’s energy efficiently, the reflectors are aligned with the axis of the sun’s rays. An electronic timer attached to a DC motor used the rope pulling technique to rotate all sic reflecting dishes in the direction of the sun’s movement throughout the day. In addition, there is an electric heater available as a ‘standby’ system, in case of rainy or cloudy days.

According to Indian Railways, the Solar Concentrator based water heating system is expected to save roughly 1.9 lakh units of electric energy and reduce the carbon footprint by around 1,58,410 kilos CO2 per year. The entire operation being managed by Indian Railways is also estimated to save Rs. 15.72 lakhs per year.

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