With the recent hue and cry over the global climate, imprudent use of resources and a natural apathy towards the planet by the rich as well as the developing countries, India has made a striking effort to show its commitment for a greener Earth and sustainable development.
India has unveiled the world’s first absolute solar powered airport on Tuesday. The Cochin International Airport in the south Indian state of Kerala has now become “absolutely power neutral”. The airport is powered by 46,000 solar panels arrayed across 45 acres of land. It is a 12 MWp solar power plant generating 48,000 units per day and is anticipated to cut the carbon emissions by 300,000 tons over the next 25 years.
The notion of sustainable development is well understood by all. Elon Musk plans to utilize solar energy to power your entire home with Tesla Powerwall. Right now reducing any country’s carbon footprint is both a major economic and a technical challenge throughout the globe. India as an emerging superpower is therefore expected to brood innovative sustainable development.
— TheNewsMinute (@thenewsminute) August 19, 2015
India already has 4GWp of solar capacity, and is looking further for increasing the outputs from its renewable energy sources as well as nuclear power plants.
To get the gravity of this major achievement of building an absolute solar powered airport by India, the reduction in carbon footprint by the new solar power plant is equivalent of planting three million trees or not driving 750 million miles.
The Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL), airport’s parent company, also plans to sell the surplus energy to the Kerala State Electricity Board. Kerala is an Indian state with numerous water bodies and the CIAL plans to exploit the resource with dam based solar panels.
This is an amazing feat by India and the South Asian nation should plan to continue its research and fulfill its commitment to sustainable development.
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