CIAL commissions floating solar power plants

Cochin International Airport Ltd(CIAL), which became the worlds first solar-powered airportin 2015, on Sunday added another feather to its cap,commissioning two floating solar power plants in Kerala.

With the installation of the plants with a capacity of452 KWh over two artificial lakes, the airport's totalinstalled capacity has risen to 40 MWp helping it to producearound 1.60 lakh units of power a day against per dayconsumption of around at 1.30 lakh units, the CIAL said.

''CIALs trysts with the experiments in producing greenenergy achieved another milestone with this installation asthe company has introduced cost-effective high-densitypolyethylene floats; using French technology, upon which 1300photovoltaic panels were mounted and laid over two artificiallakes located in the 130-acre CIAL golf course'', it said.

The plants covering a total area of one acre areconnected to the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) powergrid, CIAL said in a release.

The pre-commissioning trials showed that these panels,which cost around Rs 2 crore to the company, were producingpower with maximum output efficiency among the eight solarpower plants installed by CIAL at various locations in theairport premises, the company said.

CIAL founder managing director V J Kurian attributed thesuccess of the plants to the companys relentless efforts inbringing in new technologies and its working philosophy at parwith global standards.

''CIAL has been reinventing itself since its formativedays. One of our innovations which proved that relying upongreen energy is possible even for the high energy consumerslike an airport has won us the champions of the earth awardinstituted by the United Nations. We are committed to theprotection of nature and trying our best to reduce the carbonfootprints,'' he said.

The company successfully executed the idea of TotalSustainability Management (TSM) in its golf course wheretreated water from the sewage treatment plant of the airportis used for water harvesting with the help of 12 artificiallakes.

The water from these lakes are used for irrigating thelawns of the golf course and now, with the installation of thefloating power plants, it has leapt one more step forward inTSM.

The technical assistance for the floating plants wasprovided by French company CIEL TERRA.

French Ambassador to India Immanuel Lenain had visitedthe floating plants last month and expressed his satisfaction.

CIAL said it aims to become the second largest powerproducer in the state after KSEB, adding a 12 MWp plant wasbeing completed at Payyannur in Kannur district.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)