{"id":22812,"date":"2022-07-19T00:10:06","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T00:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=22812"},"modified":"2022-07-19T00:11:35","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T00:11:35","slug":"springfield-airport-authority-breaks-ground-on-solar-array-project-bringing-renewable-energy-to-abraham-lincoln-capital-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/illinois\/springfield-airport-authority-breaks-ground-on-solar-array-project-bringing-renewable-energy-to-abraham-lincoln-capital-airport\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Springfield Airport Authority Breaks Ground on Solar Array Project Bringing Renewable Energy to Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport\u00ae"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Springfield Airport Authority, owners and operators of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flyspi.com\/\">Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport<\/a> in Springfield, Illinois held a groundbreaking ceremony celebrating the commencement of the installation of a $5.6 million solar array project. The 2.88-megawatt system will be comprised of a combination of roof and ground mounted solar arrays spanning across three sites producing approximately 4,000,000 kWh annually. The system is expected to offset over 90% of the current electrical needs for three facilities located in the airport\u2019s north quadrant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Springfield Airport Authority has collaborated with\nVeregy to design and oversee the construction of this renewable solar energy\nproject. The project will ultimately provide significant operational savings\nfor the Airport Authority and StandardAero and most importantly cost certainty\nfor a significant portion of their electricity needs well into the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Frank Vala, Chair of the Springfield Airport Authority\u2019s\nBoard of Commissioners, said \u201cThe primary goal of this project has been to\nprovide a renewable, affordable and reliable energy source that provides for\nlong term cost certainty for one of our largest tenants, StandardAero.\u201d Vala\ncontinued, \u201cStandardAero is a significant local employer of highly skilled technicians,\nand it is imperative we do all we can to support their efforts for growth and\nprosperity in our community. Projects like this demonstrate the Airport\nAuthority\u2019s sincere devotion to support our community\u2019s economic development\nefforts that provide direct, valuable and meaningful benefits for those who\nhave made significant commitments to our region.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>StandardAero is an international company that provides major\nmaintenance, repair and overhaul services for larger business aircraft and its\nroots in Springfield date back as far as the 1950\u2019s.&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAt StandardAero, long-term partnerships are extremely\nimportant to our company and our employees. We have been an active partner in\nthis community and at this airport for many decades. More importantly, we\nintend to stay here and continue to grow our business and our relationships,\u201d\nsaid Tony Brancato, President of StandardAero Business Aviation. \u201cWe are\nexcited about the innovative new solar array, and we look forward to using this\nunique alternative energy solution as our primary power source for our\nfacility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The project capitalizes on efforts the Airport Authority\npreviously completed with the Federal Aviation Administration in anticipation\nof a solar farm that would have provided power directly into the electrical\ngrid. Now those efforts will be utilized in a net-metering solution directly\nbenefiting the airport and its tenants. Once completed, this project will be\nthe largest airport owned solar array for net-metering in the state of Illinois\nproviding an anticipated savings of $14.1M over a 30-year time period. The\nAirport Authority will ultimately own the entire system and provide energy to\ntenants through associated lease agreements. The project is expected to lower\ngreenhouse gas emissions at a value equivalent to over 7 million vehicle miles\ndriven or 7,500 barrels of oil consumed each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Al Willis, Veregy Vice President, Midwest stated, \u201cVeregy is\nexcited to be a partner with the Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport in this once\nin a lifetime opportunity to not only reduce operating expense but to also\nprovide an additional revenue source to the airport!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Veregy is a guaranteed performance contractor that provides\nenergy and cost saving solutions that include mechanical, electrical, plumbing,\nsolar, EV, microgrid and building systems control projects that support\ncustomer\u2019s environmental and financial sustainability goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Veregy worked extensively on behalf of the Airport Authority\nto help secure the Illinois Block Grant Program\u2019s Solar Renewable Energy\nCredits (SRECs) for project funding along with a pre-paid power purchase\nagreement with Balance Solar. Combined, these funding sources provided $3.3\nmillion to help offset over half of the project costs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Springfield Airport Authority, owners and operators of the Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport in Springfield, Illinois held a groundbreaking ceremony celebrating the commencement of the installation of a $5.6 million solar array project. The 2.88-megawatt system will be comprised of a combination of roof and ground mounted solar arrays spanning across three sites producing approximately [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22813,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-illinois"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Springfield-Airport-Groundbreaking-Photo-edit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22812"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22815,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22812\/revisions\/22815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}