Athens International Airport’s Photovoltaic Park, the largest unified PV installation at an airport worldwide, officially launched operation today. The 8MWp facility, developed on a 160,000 square metre area within the airport site, was inaugurated today by the Minister of the Environment, Energy and Climate Change, Mr. George Papaconstantinou, while addresses were made by AIA’s Chairman of the Board of Directors, Prof. Stratos Papadimitriou, and AIA’s CEO, Dr. Yiannis Paraschis.
The inauguration of the PV Park marks the outcome of AIA’s long efforts to introduce Renewable Energy Sources at the airport. An investment rising to approximately 20 million euros, the project was completed in a period of 6 months; AIA’s PV Park is expected to contribute significantly to the airport company’s target of reducing the carbon footprint at its installations. Additionally, the Photovoltaic Park is projected to produce 11 million kWh annually, corresponding to almost 20% of the company’s electricity needs (9% of airport community needs) and will reduce CO2 emissions by at least 10,000 tonnes / year, for a period of at least 25 years. To indicate the scale of the reduction, it would take 1,500,000 trees in order to absorb the same amount of CO2 on an annual basis.
The Chairman of Athens International Airport, Prof. Stratos Papadimitriou, stated: “The construction and operation of the airport’s PV Park demonstrates once more AIA’s commitment to be a model company in the modern business environment, where efficient corporate governance demands responding to new challenges, through business solutions based on creativity and innovation. In this framework, Athens International Airport invests dynamically in renewable energy sources, implements its own corporate system of environmental management, and joins European industry initiatives aiming to reduce CO2 emissions from its installations.”
AIA’s CEO, Dr. Yiannis Paraschis, stressed: “Ten years since the beginning of operations of our airport, it gives us great pleasure to see the opening of our PV park, marking our continuous and dynamic investment in environmental management and development, with a focus on renewable energy sources. Having started in 2003, we have to date achieved a significant reduction in the company’s electrical consumption by more than 25%. For the future, within the framework of our actions against climate change, we are exploring the possibility of using other alternative or renewable energy sources such as geothermal energy and cogeneration, targeting a further reduction of the airport’s carbon footprint, based on the principles of energy effectiveness”.
Small scale PV installations began to appear at airports in the first decade of the 21st century, while bigger size PV parks were created during the last 5 years, mainly in the USA. AIA first installed a pilot PV unit at the airport’s train station in July 2004. This unit has been operating smoothly during the last 7 years, producing 7,500 kWh annually and providing significant data for the study that led to today’s project, Athens International Airport’s 8MWp Photovoltaic Park.