The World’s First Entirely Solar Powered Airport is Finally Here

Image via Wikimedia

Airports: a huge drain on both people’s patience and the earth’s energy. Recently, Cochin, a city in Southern India, decided that they wanted to construct a clean, modern airport. So instead of relying on traditional fossil fuels, engineers chose to go “alterna” and designed a brand new 100 percent solar powered airport—the very first in the world.

Image via Wikimedia

The international airport, expected to open in May 2016, will have a solar park spanning 45 acres. According to The Verge, engineers believe that the airport can save over 300,000 tons worth of carbon emissions over the next 25 years. That may not make a big dent internationally, but it’s a huge political first step. India currently has four gigawatts of solar capacity, and the Indian government is encouraging other airports to go solar. Other countries aren’t far behind.

Not too long ago, the wonderfully tiny Galapagos airport became the first in the world to go entirely green, running pretty much entirely on a combination of solar and wind power. Both Cochin and Galapagos are part of a larger movement to help airlines, one of the world’s biggest consumers of power, go green. Between 1996 and 2012, airports witnessed a 76.1 percent increase in greenhouse gases. They currently count for close to 2 percent of all greenhouse emissions. Airports like Cochin hope to bring that number far far closer to zero.

(Via: The Verge)