Kochi : Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL), the airport known for its penchant for the solar energy, now achieved another milestone in sustainable development as its Agrivoltaic farming has been scaled up to 20 acres; the largest of its kind in the country.
Agricultural photovoltaic (Agri-PV) also known as Agri-Voltaics or Agri-photovoltaic, is an evolving practise in sustainable development that combines the production of food and energy, a press release said on Monday.
The land here is used for both agriculture and solar power generation at the same time. CIAL, the world’s first airport fully powered by solar energy, had earlier experimented organic farming on one of its solar plants in the premises of the airport.
It started the process of scaling up the farming practice by incorporating the modern method of agri-voltaic procedure in July 2021. By December first week, CIAL was able to cover agri-voltaic farming on a total area of 20 acres.
CIAL has eight solar plants on the premises of the airport. The biggest one; near the cargo terminal has an area of 45 acres; of which 20 acres has been used for agri-voltaic practice.
The authorities cultivated vegetables like Yam, Long yard bean, Drumstick, Mountain ginger, Turmeric, Cabbage, Cauliflower and Green Chilli. Water used to clean solar photovoltaic panels is being used for irrigating the cultivation.
These crops are expected to modify the micro-climates underneath PV modules by reducing the temperature which results in increasing efficiency in power generation.
Moreover, the crop coverage in between PV arrays will check the erosion of soil and thus will reduce the dust load on the PV module. Another advantage is that the cultivation dampens the weed growth underneath the PV panel mounts.
CIAL Managing Director S.Suhas IAS said that Agri-voltaic practice is a magnificent opportunity for both the solar and agricultural sectors. Through its implementation, we can fully tap into the synergies that will make a win-win situation for the cultivation of crops and production of Renewable Energy.
“Optimum usage of available land and re-usage of water are other advantages here. It is a new sustainability model for consuming resources. It encompasses multiple additive and synergistic benefits, including reduced plant drought stress, greater food production and reduced PV panel heat stress. We believe that this will be a motivation for our future explorations towards the reliance of food and energy systems,” Suhas added.
The issue of land utilization for future food and energy production is being debated on several platforms. Given the future requirement of energy and food production, Agri voltaic system (AVS) has been proposed as a mixed system associating solar panels and crops at the same time on the same land area. APV will overcome the present either-or situation by achieving both power generation and agricultural yield.
CIAL, the world’s first power positive airport now has a total installed capacity of 40 MWp. Its PV plants produce 1.6 lakh units of power a day whereas the daily consumption stands at 1.3 lakh units.
CIAL’s power plants are coupled with Kerala State Electricity Board’s power grid. In November 2021 the airport operator ventured into hydropower production as it commissioned a 4.5 MW hydro plant at Arippara near Kozhikode.
Source : uniindia
