The Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) became the first “power neutral” airport in India with the commissioning of its 12 MW solar power plant in August. The project set up in 45 acres will meet the airport’s energy requirements, which is close to 50,000 units per day. In an interaction with BusinessLine , VJ Kurian , the company’s Managing Director, said that the initiative is in line with the company’s vision to become a green airport. Excerpts:

What prompted CIAL to go for solar power?

CIAL on an average consumes about 48,000 units of power a day. Since the KSEB (Kerala State Electricity Board) charges a very high tariff of more than ₹7 per unit, the annual outgo towards electricity charges was substantial. Moreover, the company has set a vision to become a green airport.

All these factors prompted us to vigorously explore the feasibility of captive power generation through renewable energy sources. CIAL first entered the solar PV sector by setting up a 100kW solar plant in March 2013, by installing 400 polycrystalline solar panels on the roof top of the arrival block building.

Later, the company ventured into a 1000 kW (1 MW) capacity solar PV power plant, partly on the ground and on the roof top. This was commissioned in November 2013.

As many as 4,000 mono-crystalline modules were utilised for its installation, with a capacity to produce on an average about 4,000 units per day.

After the success of both these projects, CIAL was confident to take up a project of a larger scale to make the airport independent of the grid. Hence the capacity of the installation was selected as 12MW to produce approximately 48,000 units per day. This along with the 4,000 units generated by the 1 MW plant is sufficient to make CIAL fully powered by solar energy.

How will you use the power generated from the plant?

The excess generation during the normal sunshine hours, between 10 am to 3 pm, will be used for CIAL, and the remaining will be exported to the KSEB grid. This excess produced energy will be banked in the grid and used during the non-sunshine hours of the day. KSEB has already granted permission for banking of electricity for achieving this grid neutrality.

What would be the cost involved in the project and how will you finance it?

The project was financed fully by CIAL’s own funds. The total project cost was ₹62 crore, which is about ₹5.17 crore per MW. At the present tariff, the payback period will be less than 6 years.

Can CIAL claim to be the first airport in the world to be fully powered by solar power? Are there any similar projects in other parts?

There are other airports in the US, Europe and Malaysia where solar plants exist. But Cochin is the first airport in the world to be fully powered by solar energy.

What would be the environment and cost benefits from the project?

The payback period of this project is less than 6 years. The environmental benefits include reduction of CO2 emissions by more than 3 lakh metric tonnes, which is equivalent to planting three million trees or not driving 750 million miles.

Do you have any plans to come up with similar projects taking advantage of the land availability?

The airport company has already identified areas where capacity additions are possible. Moreover, CIAL can offer any assistance to other airports for putting up solar plants.

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