The ribbon cutting ceremonies for a $6 million solar arrays system at Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport, Springfield, Illinois.
Published in Midwest Flyer Magazine August/September 2023 Digital Issue
SPRINGFIELD, ILL. – Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport in Springfield, Illinois, held a ribbon cutting June 26, 2023, to celebrate the operational start-up of its $6 million installation of a solar arrays system. Six arrays spanning across three sites provide electrical power that offsets over 90% of the electrical cost of three airports and three tenant accounts. Attending the ribbon cutting were Springfield Airport Authority Board member, Dr. Susan Shea; Executive Director of Springfield Airport Authority, Mark Hanna; Tony Broncato, President of Standard Aero, an airport tenant benefitting from the solar power; Balance Solar, a financier for the project; and Veregy, the design/build company that managed all aspects of this guaranteed energy savings project for the airport.
Tom Cleveland, President of the Illinois Public Airport Association, presented Mark Hanna with the first-ever Sustainability Award for the solar array operations and energy savings the airport has realized through this endeavor. Also, Zack Kearnan, co-founder of Balance Solar, presented a check to Mark Hanna for $1,280,000, the portion of the project cost that Balance Solar had funded.
Veregy collaborated with Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport to design and build an energy-saving project that significantly reduces the airport’s operating budget. Veregy oversaw the construction of the solar array that saves nearly $350,000 annually. The three airport accounts are net metered by a combination of roof and ground mounted solar arrays. The other three ground mounted arrays provide a net metering solution for Standard Aero, one of the airport’s tenants, and generates over 4,000,000 kWh annually. The airport owns the entire system and provides 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 provides 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 $3.5 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 direct into the utility grid. Now those FAA permits are utilized in a Net Metering solution for increased revenue and budgetary savings. This project is 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.
Mark Hanna, Executive Director of the Airport, states “This solar project will satisfy our goals and objectives to provide our facility with a significant new revenue source, and environmentally friendly and sustainability attributes, while deepening our relationships with our tenants and community stakeholders.”
Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport (SPI) continues to show its dedication to the environment and tenants by providing a solution that not only reduces operating budgets and creates revenue, but also provides a renewable energy solution.
