Pittsburgh Airport to Expand Solar Array by 4.7 MW Next Year

The following section of Pittsburgh Worldwide Airport’s vitality plan features a photo voltaic challenge on in any other case unused property that may greater than double its current array and generate an extra 4.7 MW of energy.

The airport, which turned the primary worldwide in 2021 to be totally powered by a microgrid, introduced plans late final month to companion with utility Duquesne Mild Co. and IMG Vitality Options to put in 11,216 photo voltaic panels to be situated adjoining to an current 10,000-panel photo voltaic subject, a part of the ability’s 23-MW microgrid.

Airport microgrid is an vitality plant composed of 5 pure gas-fired mills capable of produce 21 MW of electrical energy.
Picture Courtesy of the Pittsburgh Worldwide Airport

The brand new array shall be situated on 12 acres of airport-owned land that was a development particles landfill, mentioned Jamie Habberfield, senior supervisor of enterprise improvement at IMG, which Liberty Energy Improvements acquired in March. Below the deal, IMG will personal and function the expanded photo voltaic array and promote energy to Duquesne Mild beneath an influence buy settlement, beneath which energy shall be distributed to the regional grid.

IMG already owns and operates the photo voltaic a part of the microgrid and operates the gasoline plant that it additionally designed.  “It’s IMG’s proprietary design that we used to construct the plant, and we additionally operated it for the primary 4 years beneath contract,” Habberfield mentioned.  Peoples Pure Gasoline, which owned the microgrid, bought the asset to Cordia in 2023.

“There’s nothing hazardous in [the landfill], which was a chunk of property that would not be developed for some other industrial causes, so it was agreed by everybody concerned that that was a terrific place to place a photo voltaic challenge,” Habberfield added.

Development is predicted to start out in 2026, with completion anticipated within the first half of 2027. It’s too early to say when EPC or specialty contractors for the challenge shall be chosen, Habberfield mentioned, and the overview course of by regional grid operator PJM interconnection will not be accomplished till the autumn. 

“At that time, we should transfer ahead with closing budgets and financing, so we would not be ready to maneuver ahead with any contractor choice for a number of quarters,” he added.

Up Subsequent

Different vitality initiatives on the airport—which has accomplished about 90% of its $1.1 billion terminal modernization project–embrace improvement of a sustainable aviation gasoline plant and an built-in hydrogen and gasoline manufacturing facility.

The airport will act as a “strategic landlord” for these tasks, with builders needing to enter long-term lease agreements, however with the airport not essentially having a stake within the tasks, mentioned Chad Willis, vice chairman of planning, environmental and sustainability on the Allegheny County Airport Authority, which manages the Pittsburgh facility. 

Earlier this yr, the airport signed a lease settlement with inexperienced vitality developer Avina to develop and construct the sustainable aviation gasoline plant. “We have now been in negotiations and discussions with Avina for fairly a while,” Willis mentioned. The airport has acres of land to the south of its airfield that can be utilized for industrial improvement, he added.

Plans name for the ability to be developed in phases with the precise preliminary measurement but to be decided, he mentioned. “Proper now the preliminary section is deliberate to be between 25 and 50 million gallons per yr of manufacturing,” Willis mentioned. By the top of this system, the ultimate buildout will seemingly be greater than 100 million and as much as about 125 million gallons per yr.

Willis mentioned he couldn’t present particular challenge begin and finish dates for the work. “We’re hoping to get to a closing funding determination on the challenge later this yr,” he mentioned. “That may inform the development timeline, however we’re hoping to be in development beginning in early 2026.”

Initiatives just like the gasoline plant sometimes take about as much as 2.5 years to finish, Willis mentioned. “We don’t have a closing date fairly but once we anticipate to be open, however we’re hoping for late 2028 or early 2029.”

If the challenge goes via, the airport would rating one other first as the one one to supply sustainable aviation gasoline on website, he mentioned.

Final yr, CNX Sources signed a letter of intent with KeyState Vitality to construct a $1.5-billion facility on airport property that may produce both hydrogen solely, or sustainable aviation gasoline solely. However the challenge is contingent on whether or not the federal authorities “permits a pathway” for coal mine methane beneath Part 45V hydrogen production tax credit, a part of the Inflation Discount Act, the agency mentioned.

Federal tax credit for clear vitality manufacturing–together with 45V in addition to the Funding Tax Credit score, which the airport’s photo voltaic enlargement is eligible for, at the moment are being closely debated in Congress as lawmakers wrangle over the tax portion of the federal funds reconciliation invoice.

CNX didn’t reply to requests for touch upon the credit..