Uruguay. Carrasco Airport is the first in the region with a photovoltaic solar generation plant. Corporación América, a group to which Puerta del Sur belongs, concessionaire of the air terminal, recently inaugurated the modern photovoltaic solar generation plant.
With this novelty, the facility positions the airport as the first in Latin America, which has its own energy generation system.
The plant, with a power of 0.5MW, is part of the Energy Efficiency Project that the air terminal carries out and includes the replacement of LED luminaires and the installation of heat pumps and free cooling for thermal conditioning.
In its first stage, the solar plant occupies a one-hectare site at the entrance of the terminal and is made up of 1,540 photovoltaic panels distributed in seven rows from north to south. Its metal structure has state-of-the-art solar tracking technology, which allows the movement of the panels during the day and improves by 30% the capture of energy from the sun to traditional fixed panels.
The project is aligned with the goals set by the terminal in terms of sustainability and with the global order issued by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to work to mitigate the carbon footprint and prevent pollution by 2030, the year in which it is estimated that the number of aircraft passengers in the world will double.
The technical professional team operated in an articulated manner with the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining, the National Directorate of Energy, UTE, and the Control Unit of the National Directorate of Civil Aviation and Aeronautical Infrastructure (Dinacia) of the Ministry of National Defense to make the installation viable, and was finally built by a consortium made up of the firms Smart Green Uruguay and Ciemsa.
During the inauguration, which was attended by national, regional and company authorities, Diego Arrosa, CEO of Corporación América in Uruguay, highlighted the work done together with public institutions and reaffirmed the airport's commitment to energy efficiency.
The implementation of the project made it possible to reduce the carbon footprint of the terminal, which as a result obtained certification from the Level 1 Carbon Certification Program of the Airports Council International (ACI-World), in addition to ISO 14064-1, an environmental management standard in which greenhouse gas emissions reports are voluntarily verified.
