Kolkata airport goes green, now has fully functional solar power plant

Kolkata airport now has a fully functional solar plant that will be used for everyday operations. The 15 MW ground-mounted and grid connected solar plant at the airport is now absolutely ready to function. One of the major facts about this plant in West Bengal is that capacity-wise, it is the largest among all the AAI airports in the country. Apart from Kolkata, Chandigarh (3 MW) and Jaipur (1.8 MW) are the other two AAI airports having ground-mounted, grid-connected solar plant as a means of green energy.
S Raheja, Member (Planning), Airports Authority of India (AAI), said, “Once the solar plant becomes operational, we will be able to cut down on carbon emission and at the same time do some cost-cutting.” As per Mr. Raheja, this solar power plant will meet all the power necessity (which is 10-11 MW a day as if now) of the terminal building at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International (NSCBI) Airport in Kolkata.


The director of the airport Mr. Atul Dixit informing more about the project said that 67.5 acres of land has solar panels installed in the functional area of the airport. This solar plant will be able to produce 1.35 million units per month. This in return will reduce the AAI’s power bill by somewhere around 1.20 Crore a month, which is a great deal.