The 120-acre, 20-megawatt solar farm at the Tallahassee International Airport was already in place when the city of Tallahassee passed a resolution to rely exclusively on renewable energy by 2050.
The solar array was installed by a private developer in order to combat climate change. More than 100 municipal buildings, including City Hall, the airport terminal and a sewage treatment plant, have solar power thanks to an additional 330 acres that came online in late 2019.
Reese Goad, the city manager, said that they were thinking less because of the limited land. It is difficult to find land in an urban setting. The airport gave the city a piece of land that allowed for connection to the grid.
The nation's airports are turning unused land, roofs, and parking garage into solar farms as they consider their carbon footprint and alternative energy sources. The University of Colorado found that twenty percent of public airports have adopted solar power in the last decade.
Adoption is limited and varies by location, and officials can encounter environmental and bureaucratic hurdles. The prospect of earning extra revenue is a powerful draw for governments, and airports are required by law to be financially self-sufficient.
Peter J. Kirsch, a lawyer at Kaplan, Kirsch & Rockwell in Denver, said that it was an addition to the power grid, revenue generator and energy for the airport. Any effort to rely on renewable energy sources in lieu of traditional carbon-based ones will create a positive community reaction.
A study showed that twenty percent of public airports have adopted solar power in the last decade.
Some utility customers can buy solar power through community programs in airports in Florida and Texas. The solar array at Kennedy International Airport is expected to be the largest in New York State. The ability to shift to clean energy is given by these efforts.
Most airports enter into power purchase agreements with a third-party energy provider after they install solar farms, but some use municipal bonds to finance the project.
The government uses tax credits and accelerated depreciation to encourage the development of renewable energy, according to a senior managing director. Third parties own the assets and sell the energy generated to the airport when airports cannot use the tax benefits.
The owner gets paid only when the energy is flowing when prices are locked for 20 to 25 years.
Origis Energy, a Miami firm that offers clean energy storage solutions, won the bid for the project. The airport project was a departure for Origis, according to the company's chief commercial officer. He said that they are a wholesale generator of renewable energy. Ninety-nine percent of our plants are outside.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act allocating $25 billion to airports may affect the percentage.
A decade ago, a module alone cost around $2.50 per watt, and now an entire utility-scale photovoltaic system costs around $1 per watt, said David J. Feldman, a senior financial analyst in Washington for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Alicen Kandt, senior engineer at the National Renewable Energy Lab, said that solar costs have come down significantly in the last decade. It becomes appealing in areas that are not ideal.
One of those overlooked locations is Maine, where a solar project proposed for Augusta State Airport is expected to provide 7.5 megawatts of capacity, all of it returned to the grid.
Paul Merrill, a spokesman for Maine's Department of Transportation, said that the project would save the state $6 million over 20 years.
There is resistance. Several elected representatives expressed their reservations about the project at a recent city meeting. Mr. Merrill said the state was working with the city to get approval for a local permit.
Evergy, the utility that serves Kansas City, Mo., scrapped plans for an airport solar array after an engineering study found design problems. A 5-megawatt array was proposed to be built atop a new parking garage, but the garage is between the air traffic control tower and the runway, and at times glare obscured the view of air traffic controllers.
The city manager has more ambitious plans. A feasibility study is underway to see how much can be used for solar panels at the airport. He said they were looking to power the entire city.
More than 100 municipal buildings, including a sewage treatment plant, are supported by solar power from the airport.
The FAA gives guidance for evaluating solar technology. In May, the agency streamlined its process for evaluating glint and glare, allowing airports to evaluate potential impact to a control tower.
Austin International Airport has installed solar power in the cargo area and taxi area, and recently added more than 6,600 solar panels on a garage roof. The airport entered into a 25-year power purchase agreement with the North American subsidiary of the French multinational company to install solar panels on the roof, but they realized it would cost more than they thought.
Tim Harvey is a customer renewable solutions manager at Austin Energy and he said that solar is cheaper than steel. 300 kilowatts of renewable energy credits are allocated by Austin Energy to the airport.
The deal provides power for less than 1 percent of Austin Energy customers. Advocates say that size may not be the point.
Some of the solutions may not provide a large amount of energy, but still show a responsibility by the airport to do what they can to mitigate the burning of fossil fuels if they install solar, said a regional design director in Chicago at HKS.
