IAF’s Leh Station Gets Largest Solar Plant In Ladakh

The 1.5 MW solar plant has been completed well before its scheduled deadline of March 2021.

Ladakh, the youngest Union Territory in the country, where plans are afoot to make some of the largest solar parks eventually, continues to take small steps towards decarbonising its energy needs. A small start has been made with the formal opening of a 1.5 MW solar power plant, at the Indian Air Force station in Leh. Set up under the government’s ‘Make In India’ initiative, that would also mean a strong  bias towards using domestically produced equipment at the plant.

The plant  is the largest installed solar project till date out of the target of 300 MW in three phases for defence sectors and 14 MW for Leh region as set by the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

The project worth Rs 122 crore was recently inaugurated by Air Marshal V R Chaudhari, Commander-in-chief, Western Air Command, he added.

Till just a few years back, Leh was almost completely powered by diesel fired generators, a situation that is slowly being changed finally in the ecologically sensitive region by increasing use of solar , including distributed solar energy products and a focus on solar+storage projects. Conditions in the region, despite the high altitude, are considered good for solar generation, one of the reasons why the government has been pushing a project for a massive 7.5GW solar park in the region.