Kerala: Cochin Airport commissions floating solar power plants

The floating solar power plant, which has been installed in the artificial lakes near the Kochi Airport - CIAL- with technical assistance from a French firm, has started operations from Sunday. With this, the total installed power generation capacity of the Airport has become 40 megawatts.

Ernakulam:The world’s first fully solar power run airport - Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) - in Kerala, commissioned one of the biggest floating solar power plants here on Sunday.

The floating solar power plant, which has been installed in the artificial lakes near the Kochi Airport - CIAL- with technical assistance from a French firm, has started operations from Sunday. With this, the total installed power generation capacity of the Airport has become 40 megawatts.

Solar power panels have been mounted on high-density polyethene surfaces (floats) using advanced French technology. Later, these small, individual units of floats fixed with photovoltaic panels, are interconnected and laid over the water bodies covering a huge area.

This technology is being used in India for the first time at CIAL at a cost of Rs 2 crores. Floating solar power plants are more effective and efficient than the ones mounted on the ground.

CIAL Managing Director V J Kurian said CIAL has been able to achieve this feat through the relentless efforts and experiments with latest technologies towards the protection of nature and reducing the carbon footprint. The company’s working policy is on par with global standards.

CIAL has earlier won the ‘Champions of the Earth Award’ instituted by the United Nations for proving that it is possible for high energy consumers like an airport to function totally on green energy.

The idea of 'Total Sustainability Management' (TSM) has been effectively implemented in the CIAL golf course sprawling in 130 acres. Treated water from the sewage treatment plant of the Airport is harvested in the several artificial lakes made for water harvesting near the Airport. There are twelve such artificial water harvesting lakes in the CIAL golf course.

The water thus harvested in these lakes is then used to irrigate the lawns of the CIAL golf course. Now, with the floating solar power plant on two of these lakes, CIAL has moved one step further on the total sustainability model.

The CIAL floating solar power plant has been installed with technical assistance from the French Company CIEL TERRA.