New Delhi: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) on Tuesday inaugurated a one megawatt-peak (MWp) solar plant at Tirupati’s Renigunta International airport in Andhra Pradesh.With this, Tirupati has joined the league of solar-powered airports in south India, along with Cochin, Trivandrum and Vijayawada, said distributed solar developer Fourth Partner Energy, who commissioned it, in a press release.
S Sreekumar, regional ED, AAI, said, “Our aim is to ensure that Tirupati, along with all airports across south India operate completely on solar power within three years. We will also be commissioning 8 MWp plants at Hubli and Kadapa airports shortly.”
Tirupati’s ground-mounted solar plant has been installed across four acres of land, parallel to the airport runway and its isolation bay.
“Tirupati enjoys bright, sunny weather most of the year; the usability of solar power increases at daytime when the plant can meet over 75 per cent of required electricity; at night, this airport is currently non-operational...,” added S Suresh, airport director at Renigunta, Tirupati.
Excess power generated at Tirupati airport will then be routed back to the national grid via net metering, in line with Andhra Pradesh’s renewable energy policy, the Hyderabad-based solar company said in its release.
Fourth Partner Energy has already commissioned about 20 projects in Andhra Pradesh.