Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) has received another international acclaim, securing the honour at the Green Airports Recognition 2025 awards instituted by Airports Council International (ACI) Asia-Pacific & Middle East. The award honours CIAL’s sustainable energy project — terrain based Solar Power Plant at Payyannur, Kannur. Awarded in the 6–15 million passengers per annum category, this recognition places CIAL among the leading environmentally conscious airports across the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions. The ACI program celebrates exemplary environmental initiatives that contribute to greener, more sustainable aviation infrastructure.
CIAL Managing Director S. Suhas received the award from ACI President S.G.K. Kishore in a ceremony hosted by ACI at New Delhi. CIAL Airport Director Manu G., ACI International Asia-Pacific Director General Stefano Baronci were also present.
Commissioned in 2022 on a 35-acre land, CIAL introduced a concept of terrain - based installation where the geographical characteristics of the area are retained, and no changes have been made in the gradient of the land. Terrain based installation increases the land utilisation compared to flat land by decreasing the space between the Solar module arrays. The land area required for solar PV installation is reduced to approximately 2.75 Acres /MW as compared to 3.75 Acres / MW in flat land. The focus was on building the plant by retaining the gradient of the land. This could accommodate 35 % extra solar panels which will subsequently generate more energy.
“CIAL, the world’s first airport fully powered by solar energy, continues to expand its green initiatives through periodic upgrades in energy capacity as part of its infrastructure development. Committed to sustainable development, the company has been enhancing the green energy to meet the energy needs owing to the continuous infrastructure development. At present, the total installed capacity of CIAL is 50 MW”, said S. Suhas, Managing Director, CIAL. ACI International, in their official recognition letter, opined that CIAL’s submission was among the outstanding projects that stood out from the numerous high-quality entries we received in 2024.