The Veregy Central local government team participated in a groundbreaking ceremony at Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport on July 14th, 2022 for a new $5.6M solar array project that is expected to save over $501,000 annually in energy costs. The 2.88 MW project is broken into six arrays spanning across three sites, and is designed to provide electrical power that will offset over 90% of the electrical cost of three airport and three tenant accounts. Attending the groundbreaking were Springfield Airport Authority Board Chair Frank Vala, Executive Director of Springfield Airport Authority Mark Hanna, President of Business Aviation StandardAero Tony Broncato, and VP of Veregy-Central Albert Willis.
The three airport accounts will be net metered by a combination of roof and ground-mounted solar arrays. The other three ground-mounted arrays will provide a net metering solution for one of the airport’s tenants and will generate nearly 4,000,000 kWh annually. The airport will own the entire system and provide energy to the tenant through a modification to its lease agreement. The savings are equivalent to greenhouse gas emissions from 8 million vehicle miles driven or 7,500 barrels of oil consumed each year. Also, Veregy will provide all ongoing monitoring and maintenance for the solar arrays.
The Central Veregy offices worked extensively to secure the Illinois Block Grant program’s solar renewable energy credits (SRECs) for project funding along with a PPA from Balance Solar that, combined, provides $3.3 million to cover over half of the overall project cost.
This project capitalizes on efforts that the airport completed with the FAA previously in 2014, in anticipation of a solar farm that would have provided power directly into the utility grid. Now those FAA permits will be utilized in a net metering solution for increased revenue and budgetary savings. Once completed, this project will be the largest airport-owned solar array for net metering in the state of Illinois, providing an anticipated savings of $14.1M over a 30-year time period.
Al Willis, VP of Regional Operations – Central, states, “Veregy is excited to be a partner with the Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to not only reduce the operating expense but also provide an additional revenue source to the airport!”
