Solar-Powered Airport in India: Taking Off for a Greener Future
India’s Cochin International Airport (CIAL), the first solar-powered airport in the world, is a pioneer in spreading its green footprint well beyond the airport’s walls and showing to the rest of the world that an airport is capable of running entirely on solar energy.
The CIAL, one of India’s busiest airports, is situated in the city of Kochi in the Indian state of Kerala. It runs fully on renewable solar energy and serves as a model for an ideal airport that reduces carbon emissions.
The UN’s Champions of the Earth award was given to CIAL in 2018 for one of this Greenport’s innovations, which demonstrated that using green energy is feasible even for high-energy consumers like an airport.
In terms of solar energy, the CIAL has always firmly committed to the concepts of cost-effectiveness and sustainable development, and since the country has roughly 300 sunny days each year, it was an ideal choice to make, said S. Suhas, the Managing Director.
“Relying upon alternative energy for running an airport actually was a precarious idea,” said Suhas. “When we realized that our power bill was on the higher side, our management contemplated possibilities. Then the idea of tapping the green power came in.”
The solar panels were mounted to the terminals’ roofs. This, according to the local media ultimately resulted in the formation of a specialized company, CIAL Infrastructures Limited (CIL), which was given the task of producing green energy.
The CIAL has a 50 MW installed capacity currently after starting out with the pilot project with 100 KW. With the company’s earlier this year commissioning of a 12 MW solar energy facility in the Kannur district, the CIAL has increased its environmental footprint to include northern Kerala.
The CIAL has been impressively using the empty spaces between the solar panels for cultivation in addition to producing solar power. More than 90 metric tonnes of pesticide-free vegetables have already been grown as a result of this.
This comes as airports in many countries are one of the main contributors to air pollution. Heart disease, stroke, lung conditions, and lung cancer are among the risks that are increased by prolonged air pollution exposure.
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