50% of Public sector oil companies will operate on solar power Pradhan

New Delhi: Union Petroleum Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan announced that in the next five years, 50% of the petrol pumps, in the country, will operate on solar power and the work has already started to achieve the goal. He was speaking at the International Solar Alliance (ISA)summit.

Stress is being given on the use of green energies like solar, wind, biofuels and Hydrogen to reduce the Carbon Footprint. Under this initiative, the petrol pumps in the country will be operated on solar energy. Target to convert 50% of the petrol pumps to solar energy, in the next five years, has been set.

There are nearly 63,150 operational pumps of Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL), Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL), Bharat Petroleum (BPCL), in the county. Installation of solar panels has been started at these pumps. These fuel companies have a solar power capacity of 270 megawatts and 60 megawatts will be added during the year. Solar panel installation has been done at 5,000 pumps of Indian Oil, the biggest oil company in the public sector.

Petroleum Minister Pradhan announced that Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited, IOCL, HPCL, BLCL and GAIL would be participating in the ISA, as corporate partners. At the same time, these companies will be contributing $1 million to the corpus fund of the ISA.