Mumbai: After becoming the country’s first airport to install a captive, hybrid vertical-axis wind turbine and solar photovoltaic system for power generation, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) recently achieved 100% renewable energy use.
The move, CSMIA spokespersons said, is a part of the airport’s ambition to achieve ‘net zero’ emissions by 2029, which will involve cutting emissions not just from energy consumption but also waste management, transportation and other sectors. This excludes emissions from aircrafts, however, which are significantly higher.
The transport sector emitted 82,21,902 tCO2Eq of carbon in 2019, making up 24% of Mumbai’s total GHG emissions. Within this bracket, aviation contributed 45% of all GHG emissions, vehicles 44%, railways 9% and waterways 2%, according to the Mumbai Climate Action Plan.
Though officials did not provide data on how much power is consumed for CSMIA’s operations on any given date or period of time, they said that 5% of the total requirement is generated through on-site solar (with a capacity of 4.66MW), while the remaining is sourced off-site from hydro and wind projects.
As of April 2022, 57% of CSMIA’s power demand was being met through renewables, rising to 98% by July and 100% in August. This transition will help mitigate emissions from CSMIA’s operations by 1 lakh 20 thousand tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e) greenhouse gases annually.
A CSMIA spokesperson said, “We are delighted to achieve this key milestone in our journey towards attaining a sustainable future for CSMIA. This encourages us to stay committed to our net zero efforts.”
Spokespersons also pointed out that CSMIA has been inching towards the reduction of carbon emissions under its Environment Social and Governance (ESG) policy commitments. Airport management has committed to reducing another 3,000 tonnes of emissions annually by converting belt-driven fans of air handling units with EC fans, replacing cooling towers with more energy-efficient fills, converting to LED lamps, a proposed temperature monitoring system at Terminal 2 to optimise power consumption, and conversion of conventional fuel vehicles with electric vehicles.
CSMIA, under its previous administrator GVK, in 2017 achieved the Level 3+ Neutrality classification as per the Airport Carbon Accreditation program of the Airport Council International (ACI). This implies carbon neutrality for direct emissions only. The airport is in the advanced stages for achieving ACA Level 4+ Transition classification, which means it will also take steps to offset residual emissions as well. The airport uses a Carbon Accounting and Management System (CAMS) based on ISO 14064-1:2018 to identify, measure and manage Green House Gas (GHG) emissions.