Cochin's solar-powered airport, makes electricity for itself and even contributes to the power grid

Fed up of massive electricity bills, Cochin International Airport about three years ago made up their minds and took a decision at building its own solar power plant. Today the same solar cells installed by Bosch fuels all of the International Airport’s electricity needs and even contributes to the national power grid.

CNNMoney reports that the airport’s General Manager simply wanted to be independent of the electricity utility grid. And so it commissioned a German company Bosch to build a massive 45-acre solar plant on a plot of unused land.

Three years later the solar grid generates roughly about 48,000-50,000 kilowatts of power not just for the airport, but also pushes the surplus to the power grid.

Of course whenever anybody does talk solar, they also have to talk about costs. The grid did not come cheap at 620 million rupees – an amount that airport expects to save by not paying any electricity bills in less than six years. The airport also saves on carbon emissions for the next 25 years.

But the drop in prices for solar power equipment may have been one of the biggest reasons for all of this to be successful and feasible. And Cochin’s savings is getting plenty of eyeballs indeed.

Kolkata International Airport is expected to be next in line, but it is a much bigger airport so it will not be independent like Cochin. Kolkata on the other hand wants to look at the savings by covering almost 70 acres of land with solar panels that will reduce its electricity bill by a third.

The same source reports that Cochin is already working on expanding its solar power grid set up to accommodate a new facility. The new plant is expected to be up by April.