India’s third busiest airport, Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) has inked a pact with renewable power solutions provider CleanMax for the generation and supply of renewable energy.
Under the 25-year long-term power purchase agreement, the energy will be drawn from a 45.9 MW solar-wind captive power project under a special purpose vehicle named Clean Max BIAL Renewable Energy Private Limited.
“The captive power project set up in a solar-wind farm located in Jagaluru, Karnataka, owned and operated by CleanMax, will have a 36 MW solar power plant and 9.9 MW wind power plant. Solar and wind plants combine two of the fastest growing renewable energy technologies, owing to their complementary nature,” an official statement mentioned.
Notably, these power plants are generally highly efficient which provides reliability of continuous power supply and helps effectively manage the consumption load.
The collaboration is an expansion of the existing relationship between CleanMax and BIAL, rooted in a shared commitment to sustainable energy usage,” the release by CLeanMAX added
Eye on green energy solutions
The project is expected to generate an estimated 90 million units of energy (kilo-watt hours) on an annual basis, which can be sourced from the captive renewable energy power plant.
Besides, the initiative will ensure 58.3 million units of solar power annually and 31 million units of wind power, utilising the existing grid infrastructure.
“The long-term power purchase agreement with CleanMax would help meet renewable energy needs for the airport’s expansion programme and also result in substantial cost savings, further bolstering our commitment to sustainability and responsible growth,” BIAL Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Hari Marar said.
India’s third busiest airport
Bengaluru’s International Airport is India’s third busiest airport after Delhi and Mumbai, which handled over 31 million passengers during the financial year 2022-23, Minister of State of Civil Aviation Gen (Dr) VK Singh (Retd) stated in December 2023.
Among the 129 airports in the country, Delhi stood first with over 65 million passengers followed by Mumbai at 43 million passengers. Hyderabad airport recorded 21 million passengers while Chennai handled 18 million pax.
Karnataka’s Mangaluru International Airport handled over 18 lakh passengers making it the second busiest airport in the state. It was followed by Hubballi and Belagavi airports which handled over 3 lakh to 2 lakh passengers respectively.
