Kerala’s Cochin International Airport to become power-positive with new solar plant from this date
New Solar Plant at Cochin Airport: The Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) in the state of Kerala, the first airport in the world to be fully powered by solar energy, is to become power-positive with the commissioning of its new solar power plant near Payyannur in the district of Kannur. On March 6, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan would inaugurate the 12 MWp solar power plant, CIAL Managing Director S Suhas was quoted saying in a PTI report. According to CIAL, the power plant boasts of 12 megawatt capacity on a land of 35 acres, where a concept of terrain-based installation was introduced by the CIAL where the geographical characteristics of the area are retained as well as no changes made in the gradient of the land.
According to Suhas, the cumulative installed capacity of solar plants of the Cochin International Airport Limited, with the new plant, has been scaled up to 50 MWp. Solar plants of CIAL together generate two lakh units of power a day whereas the Cochin airport’s daily consumption of power stands at 1.6 lakh units. With this, the Cochin International Airport Limited leaps one step forward from its current status of being a power-neutral airport to a power-positive airport, CIAL stated.
