Airports across the country are installing solar arrays on unused land, roofs and parking lots to help them become self-sufficient while providing electricity to communities.

Give any friend a story

As a subscriber, you have 10 gifts to send every month. Anyone can read what you share.

When the City Commissioner of Tallahassee, Florida passed a resolution in early 2019 to fully rely on renewable energy by 2050, a cornerstone was already in place: Tallahassee International Airport occupies 120 acres and 20 megawatts of solar energy Power plant.

More than a year ago, a private developer installed solar panels to combat climate change and reduce emissions. At the end of 2019, another 330 acres of land were put into production, generating 42 megawatts, and providing solar energy for more than 100 municipal buildings, including city halls, airport terminals and sewage treatment plants.

"We think we will do less because the land is limited," said Reese Goad, Tallahassee City Manager. "It's difficult to find land in an urban environment." But the airport provided municipal officials with an undeveloped piece of land and allowed connection to the grid.

As the country considers its carbon footprint and alternative energy sources, the country’s airports are converting their unused land, roofs and parking lots into solar farms. According to a study by the University of Colorado last year, in the past ten years, 20% of public airports have used solar energy.

Despite the interest, the challenge remains: the adoption rate is limited and varies by location, and officials may encounter environmental and bureaucratic obstacles. But the law requires airports to be financially self-sufficient, and the prospect of earning additional income is a powerful attraction for the government.

"This is a supplement to the power grid, a source of income and energy for the airport itself," said Peter J. Kirsch, an attorney at the Kaplan, Kirsch & Rockwell law firm in Denver, whose practice focuses on regulation and transportation infrastructure. "Airports are huge users of electricity, and any effort to rely on renewable energy to replace traditional carbon-based energy will generate a positive community response."

The Community Solar Program allows some utility customers to purchase solar energy instead of using traditional fossil fuels, implemented at the airport in Tallahassee; Tampa, Florida; and Austin, Texas. At JFK International Airport, the planned solar panels are expected to be the largest in New York State when completed next year. These efforts enable renters and those with limited financial means to switch to clean energy.

Some airports, such as San Francisco, use municipal bonds to fund the installation of solar farms, but the most common is to sign a power purchase agreement with a third-party energy supplier. After the energy system is installed at the airport property, the supplier owns and operates the energy system .

"The government uses tax credits and accelerated depreciation to incentivize the development of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind energy," said Miriam S. Wrobel, senior managing director of FTI Consulting in San Francisco. “Usually, public entities such as airports cannot take advantage of tax incentives, so a third party owns assets and sells the generated energy to the airport.”

The price is locked for 20-25 years, but owners can only get paid when energy flows.

Origis Energy, a Miami company that provides clean energy storage solutions, won the bid for the Tallahassee project. Johan Vanhee, Origis' chief commercial officer, said the airport project was a starting point for the company. "We are a wholesale producer of renewable energy," he said. "99% of our factories are not at the airport."

But experts say that the decline in solar module prices and the $25 billion allocated to airports by the Infrastructure Investment and Employment Act may change this ratio.

David J. Feldman, a senior financial analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Washington, said that ten years ago, the cost of a single module was about $2.50 per watt, but now the cost of an entire utility-scale photovoltaic system Approximately $1 per watt. Headquartered in Golden, Colorado, funded by the Department of Energy.

Alicen Kandt, a senior engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the United States, said: "The cost of solar energy has dropped significantly over the past decade." "It has become attractive in areas that seem less than ideal."

One of the overlooked locations is Maine, where the proposed solar project for Augusta State Airport is expected to provide 7.5 megawatts of capacity, all of which are returned to the grid.

Paul Merrill, a spokesperson for the Maine Department of Transportation, said of the project: "This is an open space that is not harmful to anyone. The state owns it and it helps taxpayers and the environment." The project is expected to save the state $6 million. 20 years.

But there is resistance. At a recent city meeting, several elected representatives expressed reservations about the impact the project would have on a city recreation area. Mr. Merrill said that the state is working with the city to obtain local permits and easement approvals.

After an engineering study found design problems, Evergy, a utility company serving Kansas City, Missouri, cancelled plans for airport solar arrays last year. A 5 MW array is proposed to be built on a new parking lot as part of a $1.5 billion refurbishment of the terminal building, but the garage is located between the air traffic control tower and the runway, which can sometimes be blocked by glare The sight of the air traffic controller.

Now city manager Brian Platt has more ambitious plans. Approximately 5,000 acres of the 11,000-acre airport have not yet been developed, and a feasibility study is currently underway to determine how much solar panels can be used. "We want to power the entire city," he said.

The Federal Aviation Administration provides guidelines for evaluating airport solar technology. In May, the agency simplified the process of evaluating flashes and glare, allowing the airport to assess the potential impact on the control tower.

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport previously installed 84 kilowatts of solar energy in the cargo area, 27 kilowatts in the taxi area, and recently added more than 6,600 solar panels on the garage roof. City officials signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with the North American subsidiary of the French multinational Engie, when they realized that installing solar panels on the roof instead of steel would cost US$2.7 million, saving the airport US$1.5 million .

"Solar energy is cheaper than steel," said Tim Harvey, customer renewable energy solutions manager at Austin Energy, a utility company in the city, which signed a power purchase agreement with Engie. A separate agreement between Austin Energy and the airport allocated 300 kilowatts of renewable energy credits to the airport.

Through the community program, the transaction provides power to 425 Austin Energy customers, less than 1% of the utility base. But advocates say that scale may not be the point.

Jorge Barrero, Chicago area design director, said: “Some solutions may not provide a lot of energy, but they still show that the airport has a responsibility to do everything it can to reduce the burning of fossil fuels for solar installation.” HKS, a company located in Hong Kong Dallas-based global design company.