Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport unveiled its rooftop solar powered plant on Wednesday morning. According to a press release issued by BIAL, the solar plant has been installed across 8 rooftops and has been speculated to generate roughly 47 lakh units of clean electricity per year. It is estimated that 3800 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced annually as a result of the newly set up solar plants.

“BIAL’s solar project was commissioned across two phases. During the first phase in 2017, 503 KW of rooftop solar, 2.5 MW of ground mounted solar and 425 KW of car parking solar power installations were undertaken. During the second phase, in addition to the 3.35 MW installation by Sunshot, BIAL purchased 20 MUs of solar power through open access from Bosch plant of capacity 14.4 MW solar power plant commissioned at Belagavi. In addition, BIAL has also purchased 20 MUs of solar power through open access from Cleanmax. BIAL has adopted a holistic approach and sustainability principles to ensure integrity of economic viability, operational excellence, conservation of natural resources and social sustainability,” stated BIAL in its press release.

At the inauguration, Vice President of the Engineering and Maintenance Department of BIAL, Lakshminarayanan S said to media, “As a role model for sustainable progress, the BLR Airport is well on course towards achieving its goal of becoming 100% powered by renewable energy by 2020. To that end, these solar projects will help BIAL reduce the carbon footprint and achieve energy neutrality. The airport’s consumption from solar power stands at 50 million units through on-site and off-site solar Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) to meet 67% of its annual energy requirements.”

The airport administrators are hopeful and confident that they will be able to achieve energy neutrality by the year 2020.