Six months ago, Kochi airport became the world's first solar-powered airport. And if Kochi is doing its bit in reducing carbon dioxide emission, Hyderabad airport too has joined in. The Hyderabad International Airport on Tuesday commissioned a 5 MW solar power plant for its operational needs in a bid to move towards environment-friendly sources of energy.
GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. (GHIAL) has said that the capacity of the plant will be raised to 30 MW over the next two-three years. The solar plant, set up with an outlay of Rs. 25 crore, has started generating around 25,000 units per day and is equipped to meet the airport's peak power demand during daytime.
The company claims that the green energy produced by the plant is sufficient to meet the requirement of about 4,800 homes.
SGK Kishore, Chief Executive Officer of GHAIL said that the plant was set up in about four months time.
The company says this initiative will conserve natural resources by avoiding consumption of 12 tonnes of coal and 76,800 litres of water per day when compared to thermal electricity production.
The solar power plant has over 16,000 modules of solar panels, each having a fixed tilt for maximum sun exposure. The plant is equipped with an advanced SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system through which remote monitoring is carried out, the company said.
These modules based on polycrystalline technology are considered to be amongst the most efficient. The Grid-connected system would be used for captive consumption by the airport.
GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) is a joint venture company promoted by the GMR Group (63%) in partnership with Government of India (13%), Government of Telangana (13%) and Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad(11%).
This move comes after Kochi Airport became the first airport in the world to be fully run on solar power last year. Even Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport floated tenders to set up a solar plant to generate 1 MW of electricity.