UK Firm to Install 500kW Solar Plant at Mombasa Airport

Solarcentury has signed a deal with the International Civil Aviation Organisation to install a 500kW solar photovoltaic (PV) system at Moi International Airport in Mombasa.

Billed as East Africa’s largest airport solar PV plant, the ground-mounted solar system is expected to generate 820,000 kWh per year and offset 1,300 tonnes of carbon annually.

The solar-at-gate project will be completed in 10 months and the system is expected to begin generating solar power by the end of next year.

Solarcentury plans to install an airport-gate electrification unit with a mobile electric-powered pre-conditioned air (PCA) unit, an electric 400 Hz ground power unit (GPU) converter, and a large backup battery for uninterrupted power during use.

The electricity generated from the system will power the gate equipment that will supply pre-conditioned air and compatible electric power respectively to aircraft docked at an existing passenger boarding bridge, or parked at a remote stand.

Carbon emissions

This will get rid of carbon emissions from the aircraft on-board auxiliary power unit powered by jet fuel and from portable ground power units fuelled by diesel, by offering pre-conditioned air and compatible electricity that runs on solar energy to aircraft during ground operations.

“This is an exciting project for Solarcentury as it not only heralds the first international airport in East Africa to turn to solar PV and battery storage, but it also entails the addition of the PCA and GPU to enable arriving aircraft to offset all their carbon emissions on the ground,” Solarcentury East Africa director Guy Lawrence said in a statement.

The project, whose cost is yet to be disclosed, is part of a Sh750 million ICAO project that seeks to reduce carbon emissions in the aviation sector. The European Union-funded initiative targets 14 countries – 12 of them from Africa and two from the Caribbean.

“The implementation of these “solar-at-gate” projects is a good example of how to reduce carbon emissions and achieve greater sustainability in the aviation sector by using renewable energy technology,” Jane Hupe, Deputy Director of Environment for ICAO, said.

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Moi International Airport has become the latest international airport to turn to solar. In July, for instance, Hawaii’s Department of Transportation announced it would install 4,260 new solar modules at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.

The Department of Transportation stated that solar energy from the system would halve airport electricity bills and save millions annually on grid consumption.

Airports are increasingly following in the footsteps of India’s Cochin International Airport (CIA), in Kerala, which claims to be the first in the world to be “fully powered by solar.”

CIA has installed 46,100 solar panels that generate 12MW of solar electricity. In August, the airport received the 2018 Champion of the Earth Prize – UN’s highest environmental honour.

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