After the Indian Armed Forces, the Indian Navy has also joined in the country’s efforts to go green. To this end, the Indian Navy has pledged 1.5% of its entire works budget towards renewable energy generation.

To achieve this goal, it has formulated a plan called Indian Navy Environment Conservation Roadmap (INECR), with specific action plans covering the entire gamut of operations, maintenance, administration, and infrastructure.

The roadmap envisions a reduction in energy consumption and diversification of energy supply as the key result areas. While the existing military, diplomatic, constabulary and benign roles envisioned in the Indian Navy’s Maritime Doctrine define the objectives of its operations, the Green Initiatives Program of the Indian Navy has added a new dimension of social responsibility to it.

Under the INECR, numerous policies aimed at reduction of energy consumption and environment sustenance have been formulated and disseminated to all ships, as well as to the shore establishments.

Solar projects have been one of the focus areas of the Indian Navy since the inception of the INECR. The efforts undertaken in the last few years have started to fructify now, and nearly 24 MW of solar PV projects consisting of both rooftop solar and ground-mounted solar projects are under execution at various shore establishments of the Navy under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM).

Pilot projects utilizing wind or a mix of both solar and wind (hybrid) are also being taken up progressively, which will not only reduce carbon footprint but also help achieve self-sustenance in energy security. The Indian Navy has also taken up initiatives for the sustained usage of biodiesel for all motor transport vehicles.

Moreover, it plans to replace high-speed diesel (HSD) (annual usage – 6300 kiloliter) with a B5 blend of HSD, which would accrue a direct savings of 5%. The project to blend the HSD has already been planned to kickstart in Visakhapatnam in a few months.

The Navy has also focused its attention towards addressing air pollution by various environmental remediation measures, such as sapling plantation, arboriculture, and horticulture, anti-plastic drive, effluent treatment plants, among others. During afforestation drives at naval stations, more than 18,000 plants have been planted over the past one year which is being nurtured by naval personnel and would mitigate an estimated 365 tons of carbon dioxide.

Towards reduction in the energy consumption of its bases and ships, focused attention has been paid towards the use of renewable energy sources and institution of various energy conservation measures such as use of occupancy sensors, battery operated vehicles, solar street lights, LED lights, an audit of yards, SCADA based electric metering, etc. Water Conservation at various naval stations has been achieved through incorporation of drip irrigation technique, rainwater harvesting, re-use of RO water, and SCADA based water distribution system.

The Green Initiatives Program would aid in boosting the national interests of environment sustainability and self-reliance in energy.

Meanwhile, the Indian armed forces have taken to solar in a big way. Recently, Mercom reported that under project Roshni, the Indian Army’s Bhaderwah-based counter-insurgency unit Rashtriya Rifles installed solar lights in poor and remote villages of Thanhala and Ganori-Kahara located in Jammu and Kashmir’s Doda district.

Under, JNNSM, the Army has been tendering and developing numerous solar PV projects too.