{"id":6617,"date":"2016-03-23T12:59:15","date_gmt":"2016-03-23T18:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/?p=6617"},"modified":"2016-03-23T12:59:15","modified_gmt":"2016-03-23T18:59:15","slug":"here-comes-the-sun-introducing-the-first-solar-powered-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/2016\/03\/23\/here-comes-the-sun-introducing-the-first-solar-powered-airport\/","title":{"rendered":"Here Comes The Sun: Introducing The First Solar Powered Airport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The first\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.acsa.co.za\/airports\/george-airport\" target=\"_blank\">solar powered airport in\u00a0 South Africa<\/a>, George Airport,\u00a0has officially been opened making it a first of its kind in Africa.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.environment.gov.za\/\" target=\"_blank\">Environmental Affairs<\/a>\u00a0Minister\u00a0Edna Molewa congratulated the Department of Transport as it is one of the key departments paving way for South Africa\u2019s Green Economy Strategy.<\/p>\n<p>Majority of the airport\u2019s energy needs will be supplied through 200 square meters of photo-voltaic (PV) panels. PV technology generates electricity from solar radiation providing a renewable and clean energy source.\u00a0The first phase\u00a0of the project currently\u00a0supplies <a href=\"http:\/\/understandsolar.com\/south-africa-first-solar-powered-airport\/\">41% of the airport\u2019s energy demand<\/a>. The remaining 59% will be supplied according to demand from the national grid. Once the project is complete, the plant will generate a total power of <a href=\"http:\/\/afkinsider.com\/120261\/a-first-for-africa-solar-powered-airport\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"broken_link\">750 kilowatts<\/a> and fulfill\u00a0all of the airport\u2019s daily needs.<\/p>\n<p>The minister said the government is on track in transitioning South Africa to a low-carbon, resource efficient and green economy. Green transport initiatives form part of government\u2019s strategy to shift the economy towards sustainable industries with low environmental impact.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe achievement at George Airport is the result of successful collaboration between government, entities and the private sector in developing the green economy.<br \/>\nThe new solar-powered airport will operate on cost-effective and renewable sources to generate energy. It is also expected to simultaneously support South Africa\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets,\u201d says Molewa.<\/p>\n<p>This is in alignment with South Africa\u2019s National Climate Change Response Policy whose objective is to effectively manage climate change impacts through interventions that build and sustain South Africa\u2019s social, economic and environmental resilience and emergency response capacity.\u00a0South Africa has continued to invest heavily in the green economy, as highlighted recently in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stanlib.com\/Documents\/Budget_Speech\/16062_2016_SA_National_Budget_Kevin_Lings.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"broken_link\">2016 Budget<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Molewa added that South Africa has made a significant headway in the uptake of renewable energy, thus making the public transport system green and promoting energy efficiency in government facilities.\u00a0Other initiatives that are underway in the transport industry include shifting freight from road to rail and the introduction of electricity regenerative braking in locomotives.\u00a0In addition, 14 000 taxis are being converted to compressed natural gas, with an expected emission reduction of 23 \u2013 27 per cent per vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>Minister Molewa therefore urges other private and public sector entities to reconfigure and retrofit their existing infrastructure in support of more sustainable energy consumption patterns.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/constructionreviewonline.com\/2016\/02\/first-solar-powered-airport-south-africa-opens\/\" target=\"_blank\">Construction Review Online<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first solar powered airport in South Africa, George Airport, has officially been opened making it a first of its kind in Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1359,1347],"tags":[220,353,338],"class_list":["post-6617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-post","category-innovation","tag-clean-tech","tag-environmental-sustainability","tag-renewable-energy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6619,"href":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6617\/revisions\/6619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}