A Solar Airport Profits from Vegetables

Dean Sigler Solar Power, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

We’ve covered several airports that have found ways to make themselves environmentally friendly, including recycling the vast amounts of waste left by passengers, and installing solar panels to help run the site. Recently honored by the United Nations. “Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) has been selected for the Champion of Earth Prize – 2018, the highest environmental honor instituted by United Nations. CIAL is honored for its successful execution of one of the revolutionary ideas of using solar energy which made Cochin Airport a first in the world fully powered by it.” Besides generating 40 megawatts of electricity from its solar panels at 2018 levels, the airport grows organic vegetables beneath those panels.  To ensure optimum land use, “CIAL has successfully implemented organic farming of vegetables in area[s] between solar panels. The airport stands at fourth in the country in terms of international traffic and seventh in total traffic has handled ten million passengers in 2017-18.” V.J.Kurian, Managing Director for CIAL, has an integrated …