Kenya’s Moi International Airport in Mombasa.[/caption]
Solarcentury, an international solar company, has announced it will install a ground-mounted 500kW solar photovoltaic (PV) system at Kenya’s Moi International Airport in Mombasa. The solar is expected to generate 820,000 kWh per year and offset 1,300 tons of CO? annually.
The system will be interconnected to the airport terminal grid and will prioritize consumption of the solar power over the grid.
Solarcentury will also install airport gate electrification equipment consisting of a mobile electric-powered pre-conditioned air (PCA) unit and an electric 400 Hz Ground Power Unit (GPU) converter and also a large battery storage that will provide uninterrupted power to the PCA and GPU while in use.
The electricity generated from the solar photovoltaic panels will power the gate equipment, which will supply pre-conditioned air and compatible electric power respectively to aircraft docked at an existing passenger boarding bridge (PBB) or parked at a remote stand.
This will eliminate existing carbon emissions from the aircraft’s on-board auxiliary power unit (APU) powered by jet fuel and from portable ground power units (GPU) fueled by diesel. It does this by providing pre-conditioned air and compatible electricity that runs on solar energy to aircraft during ground operations.
This marks the first airport to have a solar PV system installed in East Africa. According to Solarcentury, it will pave a critical step in reducing the carbon footprint of aviation in Africa, in support of the environmental objectives of the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) member states.
Once completed, the solar system will enable the international airport to save many thousands of dollars per year on grid consumption for at least 25 years, while reducing aviation carbon emissions.
According to Solarcentury, the solar-at-gate project at Moi International Airport is expected to spur interest among other ICAO’s member states as a successful example on how to tackle the impacts of aviation on the environment, which may be replicated at a larger scale.
Work on the site will take 10 months and the systems are expected to be generating solar electricity by 2019. Solarcentury will provide two years of operations and maintenance on the system and will set up two educational kiosks inside the terminal building to provide the public with real-time information on power output and carbon emission reductions over the life of the system.
