Tata Power Solar has commissioned what is being called the largest solar carport in India. The 2.67 MW of solar panel capacity has been installed at Cochin International Airport, the world's first airport to be fully powered by solar energy.
For the project, the company installed 8,472 solar panels on 27 carports. Cochin International Airport invested in solar power back in 2015 when it became the world's first airport to run completely on solar power with 12 MW of installed capacity. It later increased the capacity to 15.4 MW.
"The project is a benchmark in terms of engineering expertise utilized in terms of complexities encountered considering the high water levels in backfilled lands," said Tata Power Solar CEO Ashish Khanna. Adding, "The modular design has helped us to execute the project in a record time and we are looking forward to more of these initiatives being replicated in other airports and commercial establishments."
Tata Power Solar currently owns production capacity of 400 MW of modules and 300 MW of cells in Bengaluru (see Tata Strongly Expands PV Production Capacity). So far, it has installed 605 MW of ground mount utility scale capacity and 140 MW of rooftop and distributed generation projects in India.
The Airports Authority of India plans to install a total of 146 MW of solar power capacity at 16 airports across the country, as announced by the government in July 2016 (see More Solar Power For Indian Airports).
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