Delhi Metro earns carbon credits

November 4, 2006
Sidhartha Roy, Hindustan Times
Email Author
New Delhi, January 04, 2008
First Published: 23:30 IST(4/1/2008)
Last Updated: 03:00 IST(5/1/2008)
Delhi Metro earns carbon credits

The Delhi Metro has become the world’s first railway project to be registered by the United Nations under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). It can now claim carbon credits for reducing emissions. The credits would mean a cool Rs 1.2 crore for Delhi Metro every year.

Under the CDM project, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will earn Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) for the use of regenerative braking system in its rolling stock (trains). “This is the world’s first that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has registered a project based on regenerative braking,” said DMRC spokesman Anuj Dayal.

Carbon credits are generated byusing cleaner technology that reduce energy consumption, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These credits can be sold to other enterprises that are unable to cut down on their emissions.

DMRC has earned the credits for its regenerative braking system used in trains that reduces 30 per cent electricity requirement. Whenever a train applies brakes, the kinetic energy released starts a machine known as converter-inverter. This machine acts as an electricity generator, which supplies electrical energy back to the Over Head Electricity (OHE) lines. The regenerated electrical energy that is supplied back to the OHE is used by other accelerating trains in the same service line.

DMRC would now earn Rs 1.2 crore per year for 10 years from sale of CERs to a Japanese firm it had tied-up with.
HindustanTimes-Print
© Copyright 2007 Hindustan Times