S’pore’s largest single-site rooftop solar panel system to be installed at Changi Airport by 2025

Changi Airport is taking its decarbonisation efforts up a notch and has started work on the installation of a large-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) system on the roofs of passenger terminals, as well as airfield and cargo buildings operated by Changi Airport Group (CAG). When completed in early 2025, it will be Singapore’s largest rooftop solar PV system in a single location, airport operator CAG and asset manager Keppel announced on Feb 14. Another system will be installed at a 4ha area – the equivalent of nearly six football fields – within the airfield, away from spaces where aircraft operate. This comes after an international panel of experts and business representatives in 2022 recommended that Changi Airport consider installing solar panels on open spaces within the airfield. CAG said on Feb 14 that it has appointed Keppel to design, build, own and operate the solar PV systems at Changi Airport for 25 years. Once ready, the solar PV systems will have a combined generation capacity of 43MW-peak (MWp). Of this, 38MWp will be generated from the system installed on rooftops, while the remaining 5MWp of solar generation capacity will be from the system in the airfield. CAG and Keppel said the new systems would reduce CAG’s carbon emissions by about 10% of its energy consumption levels in 2019, or about 20,000 tonnes every year. The systems will generate enough solar energy to power more than 10,000 four-room Housing Board flats yearly, they added. CAG and Keppel said the installation of solar PV systems in airports comes with unique challenges, compared with conventional installation at commercial, industrial or residential sites.<br/>