Install solar photovoltaic panels on buildings and/or at ground level.
The installation of photovoltaic power enables an airport to produce electrical energy for its own demand. Potential sites for photovoltaic infrastructure include building roofs, façades and open ground. The following factors are relevant for achieving benefits: incorporate an integrated planning approach (plan for such a system from the beginning of planning), identify sufficient parameters (sun duration and exposure, available ground and/or buildings) and identify an electrical system (preferably its own mid voltage airport grid, so that the produced energy can be used on-site). Solar panels are particularly useful for outlying equipment, ancillary buildings, and parking and site lighting. Strategies: solar trees can be mounted on steel poles topped with photovoltaic arrays that shift and tilt throughout the day to track the sun; install synthetic photovoltaic cell-based skin; mount solar panels near windows to double as canopies for window shading.
Practice Information
| Capital Cost: | Very Expensive (>$500,000 US) |
| O&M Cost: | High (>$100,000 US) |
| Payback Period: | Immediate (0 – 2 years) |
| Staffing Requirements: | Negligible (<10 hours per month) |
| Reportability of Metrics: | Quantitative metric standard for airport industry |
| Maturity of Practice: | Proven at multiple airports |
| Energy Reduction: | Decreases energy consumption and generates renewable energy |
| Environmental Benefits: | Moderate environmental benefit |
| Social Benefits: | Moderate social benefit |
Airport Characteristics
Categories
Case Studies
Multiple Airports
Solar panel plants are quite common at airports. While most airports use building roofs (given the scarcity of land), some airports have installed solar panel arrays on the ground. Airports that have solar panels include (but are not limited to) Chicago O’Hare, Denver, Dallas Fort Worth, Portland, San Francisco, Salzburg, Hamburg, Dresden, Leipzig, and Dusseldorf.
Zurich Airport (ZRH), Switzerland
The roof of Concourse E at ZRH is known as the “fifth façade” and has a triple function: the roof as a solar power plant, shade for the façade, and a design function. Approximately 5,000 solar modules cover an area of 5,800 square meters. The solar plant is designed as part of the electricity network and the produced energy is fed into the airport’s own middle voltage grid. The mean power production of 290,000 kilowatt-hours per annum contributes to the electricity supply of Pier E (plant size is 260 kilowatts). The additional costs for the plant were approximately over 3 million dollars, but the annual operating costs are lower than the energy savings, thus yielding a net positive contribution. In 2002, the airport received the Swiss solar prize award for its solar initiatives.
Related Links
Zurich Airport, “Environmental Achievements at Pier E”
Sandia National Laboratories, ""Solar Glare and Flux Mapping Tools""
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