Enerparc Archives - Solar Love!

Cochin International Airport Limited in Kochi, Kerala (India) has become the first airport in the world to be powered entirely by solar power. A 12 MW solar PV plant, spread over 50 acres, was inaugurated two days back near the airport’s cargo complex.

The power plant took 6 months to complete and has come up at a cost of ₹620 million ($9.5 million).

Technically speaking, the airport is now grid neutral, as it will give back more than it consumes from the grid. The newly installed solar power plant can generate between 50,000 to 60,000 kWh per day.

The airport has another 1 MW solar PV plant in addition to a smaller grid-connected 100 kW rooftop system, both of which were installed in 2013.

The electricity generated from the system will be fed into the power grid and the airport will use equivalent power from the utility. The plant is expected to produce much more than what the airport would consume, and for this purpose a PPA has been signed with Kerala State Electricity Board to sell any surplus power.

The 12 MW system was executed by Bosch’s Energy and Building Solutions team in India. This is the largest project for the company to date.

US-based First Solar has led the utility-scale solar league for awhile now, but the latest statistics for utility-scale solar construction (EPC contracts) put it way out in the lead.

As you can see in the Wiki-Solar table below, First Solar now has built 1,147 MW of solar power capacity at solar farms 10 MW in size or bigger. Second is Juwi Solar, at 516 MW.

“More than half of the companies in the list are European solar specialist EPC contractors, many of which have successfully diversified internationally, as their home markets have been squeezed,” Wiki-Solar adds.

“Utility-scale^[1] installations in 2013 now exceed 6 GWp, so the market is worth well over $10bn. This is already a record, and the total is expected to top 8 GWp when the full year’s commissioning data is available, compared to 5.6 GWp in 2012 and 3.6 GWp the year before.”

One more big note is that a couple of large, multinational, general engineering companies — Bechtel and Fluor — have made it into the top 11.

“The entry of the big multi-nationals is a sign of this sector reaching maturity,” says Wiki-Solar founder Philip Wolfe. “A $10bn market with 50% year-on-year growth is enough to get anyone’s attention. The specialist solar contractors can’t rest on their laurels, and it’s good to see traditional leaders like Juwi and SunEdison actively pursuing new market opportunities to keep them high on the list.”

“The big multinationals have climbed the ranking tables fast, by focusing on the largest projects, like California Valley and Catalina (Bechtel), Mesquite (Zachry) and Arlington Valley (Fluor). They’re not all new entrants, though; Fluor built the first multi-megawatt solar power station for Arco back in 1984 in Carrisa Plain – coincidentally on part of the site where First Solar is now building the 550 MW Topaz solar farm.”

It’s amazing to see how fast this sector is growing.

h/t RenewEconomy

Enerparc

Cochin (India) — World’s First Airport To Go 100% Solar

First Solar Dominates Utility-Solar Power Plant Construction, Big Boys Jump In