Solar energy to power trains in India.
India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is poised to subsidise the cost of fitting 500 trains in the country with solar panels, in a move towards achieving the railway's goal of sourcing some 10% of its energy needs through renewable energy&nbsp;by 2020. India's railways are the largest power consumer in the country and consumption is growing at around 5% per annum, so such action has been pushed up the government's energy security agenda. A competitive bidding process will be utilised, thus the railways also expect to benefit from lower tariffs, especially due to its position as number one consumer of electricity in the country. 
Global renewable energy giant SunEdi son will invest nearly Rs 12,000 crore to create about 2 gigawatts or 2000MW of renewable energy power assets, both wind and solar power projects, in Tamil Nadu over five years, the company said on Wednesday after signing agreements on Wednesday during the Global Investors Meet.A statement from the company said, "The 2 gigawatts are part of SunEdison's larger plan to develop 15.2 gigawatts of renewable energy in the country by 2022.""SunEdison is dedicated to furthering India's renewable energy programme, and has committed to develop and construct 15.2 gigawatts of clean and cost effective wind and solar power projects in the country by 2022," said Pashupathy Gopalan, SunEdison's president for Asia-Pacific and SubSaharan Africa operations."With this MoU, we are expressing our support for Tamil Nadu's clean energy future, and are making progress towards our larger commitment," he said.Gopalan signed the agreement document at the ongoing investors conference at the Chennai Trade Centre in Nan dambakkam.Detailing plans, SunEdison officials said that the company would develop 1200MW of solar power projects and 800MW of wind energy projects. "We have acquired land parcels for solar project outside Madurai, Virudhunagar and Tiruchuzhi (in Perambalur district) for the solar project," an official said.The company has already acquired land at Periyapatti near Coimbatore for its wind energy project. "We do not foresee any issues on land buying," the official said. Industrial estimate is that producing one megawatt of solar power will require about five acres of land.The projects are expected to be completed in phases over five years. The funding would be through a mixture of debt and equity . For debt, the company has initiated talks with state owned banks. " Almost all public sector banks are ready to fund our projects," the official said.SunEdison, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is one of the world's largest renewable energy asset managers and provides customers with asset management, operations and maintenance, monitoring and reporting services.Tamil Nadu had unveiled its solar policy in 2012 with a view to generate 3000MW of solar power by 2015, and planned to increase the capacity by 1000MW every following year.A number of companies are evincing interest in setting up solar power plants in the state.