And Something for our Railways

San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit Stations are to run their ticket vending machines etc from solar power mounted on the roofs. Admitted vending machines are not really going to become something in South Asia, all South Asian countries have extensive railway networks, India's carrying more people than the railways of any other country in the world and the others being proportionately very large as well. Why on earth can't our countries do something like this: http://www.bart.gov/news/barttv/ BART Station Will Run on Solar Power
July 10, 2008Harnessing the power of the sun here at Orinda Station.That's the idea behind an agreement the BART Board of Directors has unamiously approved. The Board gave the General Manager the authority to award a contract to a copmany that will install a canopy made out of solar panels in one of Orinda Station's parking lots.Gail Murray/BART Board President"We're seeing a great pilot (project) and I'm very pleased that it's happening at Orinda because Orinda itself is very energy conscious and it's a good place to start."Power generated by the solar panels will provide all the electricity the station needs during daylight hours, operating ticket machines, fare gates and more.The panels will look something like this, providing not just power but some shade as well.The solar panel project is just part of a plan to make BART's business operations more friendly to the environment.Gail Murray/BART Board President"Who better than BART to lead the way in sustainability because BART itself is so sustainable."The solar power contract also calls for installing solar panels on two of BARTs' sprawling maintenance facilities.In total, BART could benefit from 3.4 million dollars in electrical savings over the next 20 years.Gail Murray/BART Board President."Think what we could do in terms of saving energy if we could do that at many or all of our stations. It's a great start to a great project to save energy and be a leader in sustainability."Look for the solar panels at Orinda by late December.And to learn more about the BART Board and its Sustainability/Green Committee, click on http://www.bart.gov/about/bod/meetings.aspx.Jim Allison, BARTtv News.

And the same kind of roofs are being used over car parks as well: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2008/04/needs-a-hed-4.html

Applications are available aplenty. Now if only someone would sit down and find a way to do something like this in South Asia . . .