A 20-year-old International airport in the South Indian city of Kochi has become the world’s first solar-powered airport.
The airport can now produce more than 50,000 units of electricity with its new solar plant, making it energy self-sufficient. The airport’s solar panels were made in China.
Cochin International Airport was India’s first private-public partnership airport and it’s also the seventh-busiest airport in the country. Now it has become the world’s only airport run entirely on solar power.
Over the next 25 years, the Cochin Airport will cut 300,000 tons of carbon emissions, which is equal to planting 3 million trees. The Indian government is looking at solar as a major source of power and is planning an investment of $100 billion in the sector by 2022.
RTFA for the video coverage. Kudos to India for the commitment.
Preview of the TPP? America Just Blocked a Massive Solar Project in India http://anonhq.com/america-just-blocked-indias-ambitious-solar-program/ – by dragging India to the World Trade Organization claiming that India’s efforts to boost local production of solar cells and solar modules violated WTO rules. The WTO panel ruled that the domestic content requirement (DCR) imposed under India’s National Solar Mission (NSM), is inconsistent with its archaic treaty obligations under the global trading regime. The requirement in question mandates a percentage of components to be sourced locally, to boost homegrown production of solar cells and solar modules.
Currently, India imports three quarters of its energy needs. With the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, India aimed to deploy 20,000 MW of grid connected solar power by 2022 – more than the current solar capacity of the world’s top five solar-producing countries combined. This deployment was in order to reduce the cost of solar power generation in the country, making India a global leader in solar energy. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_India