India’s first airport operating on solar power, Cochin International Airport turns out to be first airport of its kind in the nation. Cochin International Airport Limited’s (CIAL) green initiative capable of generating 12MWp of solar power project would be inaugurated by the Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy which has been established in the premises of the airport on August 18, Airport.

Cochin International Airport Becomes India’s First Airport Operating on Solar Power

Cochin International Airport’s cargo complex in the massive 45 acres of geographical location would be in need of 50,000 to 60,000 units of electricity per day for all its operational functions when the photovoltaic’s (PV) panels laid across. Managing Director V J Kurien states that this would make the airport “absolutely power neutral” technically.

Cochin International Airport Limited’s (CIAL) has created many records in the past has been an inspiring one for the rest. Earlier in the past Cochin International Airport Limited’s (CIAL) has been the first airport being the pioneer in PPP model in building an airport to introducing a path-breaking rehabilitation package for evictees, has ventured into the Solar PV sector during March 2013, by installing a 100 kWp solar PV Plant on the roof top of the Arrival Terminal Block.

This rare feat of CIAL had been a trend setter in the field of grid-connected solar PV in the state of Kerala. Later CIAL installed a 1 MWp solar PV power plant partly on the roof top and partly on the ground in the Aircraft Maintenance Hangar facility within the Airport premises after the successful commissioning of this plant.

SCADA system technology has been used for both these plants to make it easy to monitor the whole system remotely. These projects of CIAL would be saving more than 550MT of CO2 emission minimizing environmental degradation which is equal to 1.75 lakh MT for the next 25 years and to planting 30 lakh trees.

 A CIAL official said “After commissioning, this installation is expected to generate around 48000 units per day, which along with the electricity generated from the existing 1.10 MWp plants, would be sufficient to meet the power requirement of the Airport.”