Kochi, Feb 27 (FN Agency) Marking the start of another era in sustainable development, Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL), which owns the world’s first fully solar powered airport, is all set to commission its new solar power plant at Payyanur, officials announced on Sunday. With this, CIAL leaps one step forward from its current status of being a power neutral airport to a power positive airport. The 12 MWp Payyanur Plant will be dedicated to the nation by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in a function slated to be held at the Solar Plant premises at Ettukudukka near Payyanur on March 6, 2022. With the commissioning of Payyanur plant the cumulative installed capacity of solar plants of CIAL has been scaled up to 50 MWp. These include seven plants functioning at the premises of the airport, a solar carport and the one to be commissioned now at Payyanur.
CIAL’s solar power plants will together generate 2 lakh units of power a day whereas the airport’s daily power consumption stands at 1.6 lakh units. CIAL Managing Director S Suhas IAS attributed the milestone of achieving 50 MWp of installed capacity to the guidelines given to the company by the Chief Minister, who also holds the post of Chairman, CIAL and board of the Directors. “The airport attained the status of World’s first airport fully powered by solar energy way back in 2015. As the company has embarked on a spree of infrastructures development activities, periodic enhancement of the installed capacity of energy projects was required,” Suhas said. “CIAL is known for its adherence to the idea of sustainable development and which prompted the effective utilization of green energy for all its power requirements.”
“This vision of embracing energy efficiency instigated the construction of eight power plants and a small hydro-electrical project at Arippara, Kozhikode. The latest in the series is the new solar power plant at Ettukudukka near Payyannur.” The power plant boasts of 12 megawatt capacity on a 35-acre land where CIAL introduced a concept of terrain based installation where the geographical characteristics of the area are retained, and no changes have been made in the gradient of the land. Terrain based installation increases land utilisation compared to flat land by decreasing the space between the solar module arrays. The land area required for solar PV installation is reduced to approximately 2.75 Acres /MW as compared to 3.75 Acres / MW in flat land. The focus was on building the plant by retaining the gradient of the land.
This could accommodate 35 per cent extra solar panels which will subsequently generate more energy. A cumulative installed capacity of 50 MWp of green energy contributes fairly to the cause of championing sustainable development. It reduces the carbon footprint by 2,800 metric tons per year “This is at par with the fresh air that we get by planting 46 lakh tree saplings for 10 years. This is also equivalent to not burning 11.9 million litres of fossil fuels,” he said. “It is also roughly the same amount of fuel used by over 7000 cars every year.” Cochin International Airport had been recognised by the United Nations in 2018 by bestowing it with ‘The Champions of the Earth’ award, the highest environmental award instituted by the United Nations. The award marked that CIAL is showing the world that ‘ green business in good business.