Airports go in on solar farms
Unused land tracts, roofs and garages being transformed to harness renewable energy
When city commissioners in Tallahassee, Florida, passed a resolution in early 2019 to rely exclusively on renewable energy by 2050, one cornerstone was already in place: a 120-acre, 20-megawatt solar farm at Tallahassee International Airport.
The solar arrays had been installed just over a year earlier by a private developer in an effort to combat climate change and curtail emissions. An additional 330 acres producing 42 megawatts came online in late 2019, supplying solar power to more than 100 municipal buildings, including City Hall, the airport terminal and a sewage treatment plant.
“We were thinking we would do less, because land was limited,” said Reese Goad, the Tallahassee city manager. “It’s difficult to find land in an urban setting.” But the airport provided city officials with a parcel of undeveloped land that also allowed for connection to the grid.
As the country considers its carbon footprint and alternative energy sources, the nation’s airports are turning their unused land, roofs and parking garages into solar farms. Some 20% of public airports have adopted solar power in the last decade, according to a study last year at the University of Colorado.
Despite the interest, challenges still remain: Adoption is limited and varies by location, and officials can encounter environmental and bureaucratic hurdles. But airports are required by law to be financially self-sufficient, and the prospect of earning extra revenue is a powerful draw for governments.
“It’s an addition to the power grid, a revenue generator and energy for the airport itself,” said Peter Kirsch, a lawyer at Kaplan, Kirsch & Rockwell in Denver whose practice focuses on regulation and transportation infrastructure. “Airports are enormous users of power, and any effort to rely on renewable energy sources in lieu of traditional carbon-based ones will create a positive community reaction.”
Community solar programs, which allow some utility customers to buy solar power instead of using traditional fossil fuel, are in place at airports in Tallahassee; Tampa, Florida; and Austin, Texas, among others. At Kennedy International Airport, a planned solar array is expected to be the largest in New York state when it is completed next year. These efforts give renters and those with limited means the ability to shift to clean energy.
Some airports, like San Francisco’s, use municipal bonds to finance the installation of solar farms, but most typically enter into a power purchase agreement with a third-party energy provider, which owns and operates an energy system after it is installed on the airport’s property.
“The government incentivizes development of renewable energy, such as solar and wind, through the use of tax credits and accelerated depreciation,” said Miriam Wrobel, a senior managing director at FTI Consulting in San Francisco. “Often, public entities such as airports cannot utilize the tax benefits, so third parties own the assets and sell the energy generated to the airport.”
Prices are locked for 20 to 25 years, but the owner gets paid only when the energy is flowing.
The Federal Aviation Administration provides guidance for evaluating solar technology for airports. In May, the agency streamlined its process evaluating glint and glare, allowing airports to evaluate potential impact to a control tower.