NEW DELHI (Commodity Online): Indian armed forces are considering replacing dry and wet batteries with solar power as a part of a major initiative towards adopting energy efficiency and conservation in operations and cantonment complexes.

Disclosing the rationale of the initiative, Air Marshal D. Kukreja, Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff, DCIDS (Operations), informed that the day was not far, when the Jawan treading up the Siachen glacier along with his platoon would not need to carry the heavy batteries; instead the Army is planning to replace dry and wet batteries with solar power packs.

In a seminar on ‘renewable energy for defence services’, Air Marshal Kukreja said that the three Services have completed an energy audit of few major installations. “At least one building in each Command would soon meet the GRIHA standards – Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment – A national rating system of India - and the ball has been set rolling by the engineer-in-chief’s branch,” he added.



The GRIHA, an acronym for the ‘Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment’, is an energy efficiency classification scale awarded to environment friendly buildings by The Energy Research Institute (TERI). GRIHA is also recognized by the union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) for granting subsidies in registration and various other charges.

Defence Forces around the world being amongst the largest consumers of energy, it is imperative of them to optimize consumption of diesel and conventional energy sources, noted the Minister of State for Defence Dr MM Pallam Raju. “I can foresee that in the future we may have a treaty thrust upon us which may restrict our consumption of fossil fuels and thus put a cap on our growth and development,” said Raju, who is also the Chairman of the Task Force set up by the Headquarters, Integrated Defence Staff (IDS) to monitor the progress of the application of non-conventional and renewable energy in the military environment.

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