Do Airports Use Solar Panel

The airport has a total of 42 358 solar panels spread across 55 acres of solar fields.

Do airports use solar panel.

At some of the major airports in the us and around the world solar panels are providing power during daily operations. When solar panels are installed the airport can serve as a nearby energy customer itself. The airport now features over 46 000 solar panels generating in the excess of 13mw. Solar energy technologies such as solar pv are mature commercially available renewable energy technologies.

Airport environments are favourable for solar projects. The airport also has another 1 mw solar pv plant in addition to a smaller grid connected 100 kw rooftop system both of which were installed two years ago. 2mw of solar panels facing due south are located under 1km south west of runways. They have stopped paying for electricity all together and even started to contribute energy back to the main grid.

The focus of this paper is pv as it has the largest potential applicability for deployment at airports. And if an airfield is no longer operational it may be an ideal space to install a solar project and use the electricity produced as an additional revenue stream. In other examples found in the study the solar energy systems installed at large airports are used to power nearby cities where demand is high. Constellation the tucson international airport has a uniquely designed solar amphitheater producing 1 25 mw.

Custom designed airport solar arrays. In recent years solar panels are getting installed in the lands around the airport runways to get sustainable energy. And numerous other airports have installed solar panels and built solar farms to generate renewable energy including the largest airport based solar farm a 183 acre farm at indianapolis international airport which houses 87 478 solar panels and provides 22 2 megawatts of renewable energy for the region s electric grid. Other solar technologies are briefly outlined in the appendix as they also may have some deployment potential at airports.

Particularly noteworthy and a close analogue to the majura solar farm with regard to its position in relation to an airport is the indiana solar farm. The land surrounding airports is typically unusable because of noise from low flying aircraft. The airport s solar power plant which is comprised of more than 46 000 solar panels arrayed across 45 acres of land will produce 48 000 units of energy per day the economic times reports. Some of the electricity produced is used directly at the airport and the rest is sold back to the grid.

The preponderance of examples in which solar panels have been installed at on or near airports is testament to fact that they are not automatically a hazard to pilots.