Building Solar-Powered Transit Infrastructure in India

The goal is not to make every road, railway or metro system energy-independent; that would be neither practical nor necessary. The more realistic objective is to identify where transport infrastructure can generate a meaningful share of the electricity it consumes, strengthen the resilience of local power supply, and reduce dependence on conventional electricity sources.

September 09, 2026. By News Bureau

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articles

Suhas Donthi

Emmvee Group

Conventional electricity sources

Metro systems

Affordable electricity

Solar technology

Charging infrastructure

India's transport infrastructure is being built and powered at an unprecedented pace. Indian Railways has now electrified 99.6 percent of its broad-gauge network. Metro systems are expanding across cities, expressways are being developed at scale, and battery-powered mobility is steadily creating new demand for charging infrastructure.

This shift is also changing the energy profile of transport. There is little debate that dependence on fossil fuels will continue to decline as more of the network runs on grid power. What deserves closer attention is that a growing share of mobility will now depend on reliable and affordable electricity. Indian Railways, for instance, is already looking beyond traction to the renewable energy that can sustain it. As of June 2026, it had commissioned around 1,161 MW of solar and 103 MW of wind capacity, and aims to progressively meet its traction power requirements through renewable sources, including hybrid systems with storage.

This raises a broader question for India's transport infrastructure: should we continue to think of roads, railways and transit systems only as consumers of energy, or can some of these assets also become part of the energy system itself?

There is a strong case for the latter. Transport infrastructure already occupies a vast physical footprint. Railway stations and depots have rooftops, metro systems have stations and other structures, highways have service areas and other suitable surfaces, and transport corridors increasingly carry charging infrastructure and other power loads. If solar generation can be incorporated into these assets without compromising their primary function, the same infrastructure can support both mobility and power generation.

This approach reduces the need for additional land and allows power to be generated closer to where it is consumed, a particularly useful proposition for infrastructure with predictable and concentrated energy needs. A metro station, railway facility, depot or EV charging hub can potentially draw on solar power generated on or around the same asset. Where generation and demand do not align, the system can be connected to the grid or supported by storage.

India is already moving in this direction. Railways is integrating renewable power into its broader traction strategy, while metro operators have begun testing different ways of using existing infrastructure for solar generation. Solar-on-track applications and installations associated with metro infrastructure demonstrate that the concept can be adapted to very different operating environments. At this stage, what matters is not the scale of individual installations but the fact that transport infrastructure is increasingly being viewed as part of energy planning.

India can refer to applications from other countries as well. Switzerland has installed removable solar panels between railway tracks near Buttes. Italy is piloting solar panels integrated into highway guardrails. In the Netherlands, solar has been incorporated into motorway noise barriers. These examples matter not because India needs to replicate them exactly, but because they illustrate how solar can be integrated into different elements of transport infrastructure, depending on local conditions and asset design.

The same logic extends to roads. India now has more than 1.46 lakh km of national highways, including a rapidly expanding network of four-lane and above roads and access-controlled corridors. As highway infrastructure expands, so too will the supporting electrical infrastructure required for lighting, facilities, communications and, increasingly, EV charging.

It is worth emphasising that there will be no single standard model for every transport asset. A railway installation connected to a traction system will have very different requirements from solar supporting an EV charging station on a highway. Some applications may work best as grid-connected systems, allowing solar power to be consumed locally while surplus electricity flows into the network. Others may benefit from battery storage where the timing of generation and consumption diverges. Smaller or more remote applications may require a greater degree of energy independence altogether.

This makes system design as critical as the solar technology itself. Transport infrastructure operates under demanding conditions. The equipment must withstand heat, dust, vibration, weather and continuous use, while installations around railways and highways must comply with stringent safety and operational requirements. Maintenance, too, cannot be allowed to interfere with the functioning of the transport network.

There is also a commercial dimension that deserves greater attention. Who owns the solar asset? Who consumes the electricity? How is surplus power treated? Who bears responsibility for maintenance over the life of the project? These questions become particularly consequential when transport infrastructure is developed through varied ownership and contracting models.

Answering them will require transport authorities, renewable energy companies, infrastructure developers, power utilities and technology providers to collaborate much earlier in the project cycle, and this is where India's broader infrastructure planning can play a defining role.

The goal is not to make every road, railway or metro system energy-independent; that would be neither practical nor necessary. The more realistic objective is to identify where transport infrastructure can generate a meaningful share of the electricity it consumes, strengthen the resilience of local power supply, and reduce dependence on conventional electricity sources.

India has already demonstrated that it can transform transport infrastructure at remarkable scale. The next phase is to think more deliberately about how that infrastructure is powered. If energy planning becomes an integral part of transport planning, the roads and railways we build today can do more than move people and goods. They can help power India’s journey towards a cleaner energy future.

- Suhas Donthi, President and CEO, Emmvee Group