VASCO: India's largest Naval Air Station INS Hansa has been awarded with the prestigious Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) trophy for initiating steps to reduce its carbon footprint by partial use of non-conventional energy sources.
"At Hansa, we have taken key initiatives towards maintaining a clean environment and reduce the carbon footprint. We have been successful in two of them. The third one is going on. We are examining it and on the basis of its success, we will probably implement it," Commanding Officer (CO) of INS Hansa told GT.
First step taken is replacing conventional lightning with LEDs. The base has a large real estate, comprising of administrative buildings, hangars, street lights amongst others. Also, it needs uninterrupted power supply for various equipment used to maintain the aircrafts.
"Today 90 per cent of our lighting is done using LED. We are changing internal lighting of hangars to LED powered by solar energy," CO Hansa said.
The CO Hansa informed this step has led to reduction in power bill by 20 per cent as the power consumption has fallen in last one year.
"The second very important initiative we have taken is setting up a solar farm for generating 1 MW power, which can be connected to our sub-station. Our entire air station and allied facilities use around 1.8 MW power," he said.
A study was carried out to find out what is largest extract of solar farm that could be created within the base's perimeter. The area has been identified and the project is through.
"We hope to commission this project by middle of this year. We will draw 1 MW solar power to meet our electricity requirements during most part of the day and entire night," the CO Hansa informed.
The third project is using hybrid energy, which is in study stage. The plan is to harness wind and solar power together with windmills running with solar power.
"We need to ascertain its success in this region. The feasibility study has been carried out by a company. They have studied the wind and solar pattern of last 15 years. On the basis of company report, we have got approval in-principle to set up one hybrid windmill in our area to know its efficiency," CO Hansa said.
He hoped that these projects would be a success as entire power requirement could be met using clean energy.
"If we're able to succeed, then all other Navy units can follow this model. It will help in saving on power bills, energy and conserve environment," he added.