Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has commissioned a 3.5 MW solar project on the HAL airport premises in Bengaluru. The power generated from the project will help fulfil HAL’s power requirement and is a step towards the company’s target of installing 50 MW renewable energy by 2018.

The power requirement of LCA-Tejas Division is expected to be met to begin with, said Mr. T. Suvarna Raju, CMD, HAL. The project is the first single-axis tracker based solar installation at an airport in India. In addition to cost savings, the solar project is expected to reduce emissions by 166,257 million tons of CO₂ over the life of the project, which has the same effect on CO₂ emissions as reducing consumption of 384,921 barrels of crude oil or planting 190,903 trees, he added.

The project was developed under the solar projects program being implemented by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) on defense lands and buildings, stated an HAL official. The official also said that the entire project costs close to Rs.250 million (~$3.68 million).

The company wants to set up a total of 35.8 MW of solar out of which 9.3 MW will be rooftop. Tenders for rooftop will be out in the coming financial year and for large-scale in the next month, added the HAL official.

The project was developed for HAL by Amplus, using indigenously manufactured cells and modules. According to Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker, Amplus developed the project at a tariff of Rs.5.50 (~$0.081)/kWh.