Indian Military Installs Its First Solar Plant At Narengi Station-Assam

With an objective of providing green and reliable power to its troops, the Indian Army is transforming the Narengi Military Station into a completely renewable-based military facility. The Narengi Military Station is situated near Guwahati, Assam and the army has installed a solar power plant at the military station which has a capacity of 1-MW.

This is the first solar power plant that has been constructed by the Indian Army. The green energy so derived will serve the needs of the soldiers posted there and step up their living circumstances. It will also help fight global warming. The facility can deliver about 0.7 MW of green power and the army has used only ‘Make in India’ panels in the facility.

The Indian Army is planning to raise the capacity of the Narengi station solar installation to 3 MW as the army looks for dependable power. To analyse the generation of power on a regular basis, the solar plant also has Real-Time Data Acquisition and Required Parameter Monitoring systems.

The solar facility has features that include weather parameter sensors like wind direction and speed sensors, radiation sensors, humidity sensors, temperature sensors, and barometer pressure sensors.

Major General RK Jha, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of 51 Sub Area at Narengi, said, “We have taken various steps to make a solar power plant of 1 MW capacity. In step two, we are going to use our rooftops to put solar panels and we will use them for our own consumption. Our carbon footprint is very minimum. We also undertake lots of plantation drives. The Narengi Military Station has covered around 3300 acres of land and out of which only 300 acres are built up and 3000 acres is a green patch. In collaboration with the Assam Forest department, we do the large scale of tree plantation using our own troops, their families, children.”

Last month, NTPC Renewable Energy Ltd signed an MoU with the Indian Army for the establishment of Green Hydrogen projects in its establishments to reduce complex logistics, dependence on fossil fuels and to accelerate decarbonisation.