Seen from mid-air as the flight lands, the solar panels can be seen shining in the distance on the expanse of the airport, all 46,000 of them.

First ever in the world, Cochin International Airport is an airport powered by solar power

The project was first initiated in 2013 with only 400 solar power and once they saw positive results, they expanded and covered the whole airport with 46,000 panels on the rooftops.

The project was completed upon installing a 12 megawatt solar plant this August and is fully capable of meeting its energy needs.

According to the managing director of the airport, VJ Kurian, it was the huge digits on the electricity bills that forced them to consider alternatives.

Challenge

Cochin International Airport is among the top ten busiest airports in the country and goes through a 1000 flights weekly. The cost of electricity consumed per day was $5,160. That is a big number.

After the completion of the project, the airport is producing more energy that it has need of and the excess is being saved for rainy days and night-time operations.

More and more airports in the country are visiting the first solar powered airport in the world to see the project first hand and learn more about it. The interest of a team from Liberia is piqued as well which is great progress.

The whole project cost about $9.5m and needed 6 months to complete. The costs will be covered up in the matter of 6 years and so far, there have been no bumps down that road.

But, here is the first hurdle.

The airport is being expanded and a new wing is about to be added which will stand at 1.5m sq ft. The energy this wing will require will be more than what is currently being generated.

If the airport wants to still own the title “first fully solar powered airport” then, it will need to install solar panels From Bristol.

Cochin has taken the first step in harnessing solar energy and the rest of the country is following in its footsteps. The sun appears over 300 days annually in most of the country so it has the potential to switch to this alternative.
Seeing the potential of this project has caught the attention on the PM, Narendra Modi who said that he wants to increase the solar power capacity by the year 100,000 megawatts by the year 2022.

This can be achieved by installing photovoltaic panels on the rooftops of every house in India and this will generate the desired power and considerably reduce India’s usage of fossil fuels to generate electricity.

Opposed to thermal and nuclear energy, solar energy is much preferable and is also a cleaner alternative. Energy demand in India can be met splendidly if they turned to the sun instead of fossil fuels. They will also save millions in fuel bill they were recurring to meet energy needs of the country.

Concerns

But this is all easier said than done.

According to chief of Tata Power Solar, Ashish Khanna, “We don’t have the [electricity] grid stability which can take the kind of power we are talking about. We in India are very cost conscious and when we are talking about rooftop power, people may take decisions involving inexpensive pieces of equipment that may not contribute to the kind of quality we are talking about. The challenge right now is that there are no standards in place.”

In the meantime, the Cochin International Airport’s solar plant is generating up to 18 million units of power per year. This amount of energy can power 10,000 homes per year.

But the biggest advantage is to the environment. More than 300,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced thanks to the switch. This could be equivalent to planting three million trees or not driving 750 million miles.
India is a developing country and a fair portion of the population is living under the poverty line, most with no access to electricity. Going solar may just be what it needs.