The French railway operator Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français (SNCF) has established a dedicated renewable energy subsidiary to deploy 1 GW solar power capacity by 2030 using its vacant land and building rooftop space as it targets to become energy autonomous by 2050.

SNCF Renouvelables, the subsidiary, will deploy solar panels on 1,000 hectares of land identified to host around 1 GW PV capacity which is to represent 15% to 20% of SNCF’s current electricity needs. The plan is to start work on an initial batch of projects on some 30 sites, as ground mounted, building rooftops and carparks across France.

Solar energy will displace some part of the company’s 9 TWh electricity annually to run its 15,000 trains daily, and power 3.000 stations, along with its industrial and service buildings.

Energy produced will be used by SNCF to power the electrical equipment of its stations, industrial set ups and homes. It also aims to use the same for charging stations for electric cars installed in station car parks. “In addition, this energy will also be used to supply part of our trains, more than 80% of which currently run on electricity,” it added.

The newly launched subsidiary will continue to explore solar PV systems for the overall 12 million m² building space under its parent, along with more than 100,000 hectares of land including 80,000 used for railway activity. SNCF has one among the largest land reserves in the country, it states.

“We also wish to take part in the construction of an industrial sector for the production of solar panels established in France and in Europe, in particular through the commitment to buy within the European Union, whenever possible, all components necessary for the implementation of our photovoltaic projects,” it added.