Cochin airport will soon become the country's first airport to run entirely on solar power. The completion of the project took six months and it will be inaugurated on 18th August.
Cochin airport will soon become the country’s first airport to run entirely on solar power. The completion of the project took six months and it will be inaugurated on 18th August.
Cochin International Airport is all set to become India’s first airport to run on solar power. With this green step, CIAL has added yet another feather to its hat as it is already the pioneer in the PPP (Public-private partnership) model adopted for building an airport, along with being the first airport to introduce a rehabilitation package for evictees.
The airport now has photovoltaic (PV) panels laid across 45 acres of area near the cargo complex. This will be inaugurated by the Kerala Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy on August 18.
Once these panels are operational, Cochin airport will have 50,000 to 60,000 units of electricity per day which can be consumed for all its functions. This will technically make the airport “absolutely power neutral”.
The implementation of this 12MWp solar power project cost Rs. 62 crore and took six months in completion.
It has been set up by Bosch Ltd., Bangalore and will have a capacity to produce 18 million units of power annually.
CIAL’s initiative to step into the Solar PV sector came into the picture during March 2013, when a 100 kWp solar PV Plant was installed on the roof top of the Arrival Terminal Block. After this, a 1MWp solar plant was set up in the Aircraft Maintenance Hangar facility (partly on the rooftop, and partly on the ground) in the airport premises. These plants have managed to save more than 550MT of Carbon dioxide emission so far.
All pics: CIAL Facebook
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