India is home to World's first airport to operate on solar power

As time is progressing mankind is looking to switch from conventional and limited sources of energy to the sustainable energy sources and we all know that solar energy is the future. When everyone is looking towards Solar power, Cochin International airport took a futuristic step and become the first airport in the world that completely operates on solar power.

It has made a 12 MWp solar power plant, comprising 46,150 solar panels laid across 45 acres near the cargo complex. This power plant is producing 50,000 to 60,000 units of electricity per day to be consumed for all its operational functions, which technically makes the airport ‘ absolutely power-neutral. A total of 400 polycrystalline modules of 250Wp with five numbers of 20kW capacity 'Refu-sol make string inverters were used in this plant. It is a grid-connected system without any battery storage. 

You would be wondering what will happen on cloudy days and especially at night time, well in that case CIAL(Cochin International airport limited) has worked out a solution with Kerala state electricity board, wherein, CIAL gives as much power as it produces (in the day time) to the grid of KSEB and buys back the power from them when needed (especially in night).

This plant will produce 18 million units of power from the sun annually-the power equivalent to sustaining 10,000 homes for one year. Over the next 25 years, this green power project will avoid carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants by more than 3 lakh metric tons, which is equivalent to planting 3 million trees.