A few month ago we wrote about how Cochin International in southern India is the world's first airport to be run solely on power from the sun and now it has hit a major milestone - it's powered completely by the sun.
With a 12-megawatt peak capacity, the 7th busiest airport in India no longer needs to spend a dime on electricity, in the future, the airport plans on doubling the capacity to 26.5 megawatts.
The first of those panels was installed three years ago, but it was only last year that Cochin Airport got serious about renewable energy, commissioning German firm Bosch to turn unused wasteland near one of the terminals into a huge solar power plant. Now that investment is finally starting to pay off.
The big project cost around 620 million rupees ($9.3 million), a sum the airport expects to save in less than six years by not having to pay electricity bills anymore. It also estimates the solar plant will avoid more than 300,000 metric tons of carbon emissions from coal power over the next 25 years.