Renewable Energy as an Airport Revenue Source (2015)

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

1 Airports are constantly looking for alternative revenue streams to increase their competi- tiveness and grow their businesses. They also are exploring ways to use technology to run more efficiently and achieve meaningful cost savings that can be passed on to anchor tenants in the form of more competitive rates and charges. Airports are rich in land and buildings connected to regional infrastructure that provide cost-effective investment opportunities that will benefit the airport business well into the future. Renewable energy has become mainstream as a result of technological advancement, market maturity, and public sector policy and investment with profound benefits to power markets. Renewable energy has diversified the sources of energy and decentralized the power generation network increasing competition, expanding infrastructure investments, and improving national energy security and reliability of the electrical grid. It has increased regional competition for emerging energy generation with states vying for the new business opportunities and markets. It has also demonstrated the viability of a future carbon free economy with the design of high performance buildings that use less energy and supply what is needed through renewable sources. For the energy consumer, renewable energy has unique business and public policy value. • It requires no fuel, which stabilizes long-term power prices providing economic and security benefits (with the exception of biomass, which requires a local fuel source). • It provides on-site power giving the user more control over power supply. • It avoids emissions providing local and regional benefits with anticipated future monetary value (with the exception of biomass, which has emissions but its carbon emission is consid- ered to be net zero). • It has broad public appeal and is seen as an investment in the future. This ACRP guidebook focuses on the financial benefits of renewable energy to airports. Chapter 1 introduces the renewable energy technologies that are most relevant for airports and the key players involved in a renewable energy project. Technologies discussed include solar photovoltaics (PV) and thermal, geothermal, wind, biomass, hydro, and fuel cells. Chapter 2 describes the evaluation factors that the airport should consider when assess- ing renewable energy options including the geography and characteristics of the airport, the airport’s cost of energy, public policy programs that help to fuel the renewable energy market, project ownership options, and regulatory and safety issues. Chapter 3 guides the reader through the process of conducting a financial assessment for a renewable energy project, including the types of financial benefits available, understand- ing project costs and identifying potential funding sources, and an introduction to existing S U M M A R Y Renewable Energy as an Airport Revenue Source

2 Renewable Energy as an Airport Revenue Source publicly available financial models used to evaluate the economic viability of specific renew- able energy scenarios. Chapter 4 reviews the key implementation steps for developing a renewable energy proj- ect including engaging stakeholders, procuring the services of knowledgeable energy part- ners, and obtaining regulatory approvals. Chapter 5 presents case summaries of airport renewable energy projects including financial information and business structures with examples from all of the technologies that have been successfully developed at airports and are currently generating renewable energy. The case sum- maries prepared for this report and their fundamental characteristics are listed in Table S-1. The guidebook also includes a number of other valuable resources including: • A series of decision-making flow charts to illustrate how airports identify the available renew- able energy resource for their location and the appropriate business structure to meet their needs (see Chapter 2), • A list of all known airport solar projects in the United States (Appendix A) and a map showing projects that are 100 kW or greater (Figure 1-5), • A primer on financial modeling tools used in the renewable energy industry including PVWatts for solar, and the evaluation process and cost benefit tool (EP&CBT) for assessing sustainability practices at airports which was a product of ACRP Report 110 (see Section 3.6), • An introduction to biofuel feedstock propagation as a future opportunity for land-rich airports (Appendix B), 1 Barnstable (HYA) MA Solar PV Third Party 2 Boston – Logan (BOS) MA Solar PV Third Party 3 Boston – Logan (BOS) MA Wind Airport 4 Brainerd Lakes (BRD) MN Solar Thermal Airport 5 Burlington (BTV) VT Wind Tenant 6 Chicago-Rockford (RFD) IL Solar PV Third Party 7 Denver (DEN) CO Solar PV Third Party 8 East Midlands (EMA) United Kingdom Wind Airport 9 Grant County (JDA) OR Biomass Airport 10 Indianapolis (IND) IN Solar PV Third Party 11 Juneau (JNU) AK Geothermal Airport 12 Lakeland (LAL) FL Solar PV Third Party 13 Nantucket (ACK) MA Geothermal Airport 14 Outagamie (ATW) WI Solar PV, Thermal, Geothermal Airport 15 Portland (PWM) ME Geothermal Airport 16 Redding CA (RDD) CA Solar PV Airport 17 San Diego (SAN) CA Solar PV Tenant 18 San Diego (SAN) CA Solar PV Third Party 19 Toronto (YYZ) Canada Solar Thermal Airport 20 Tucson (TUS) AZ Solar PV Airport 21 University Park (UNV) PA Geothermal Airport Table S-1. Airport renewable energy case summaries.

Renewable Energy as an Airport Revenue Source 3 • A detailed funding matrix (Appendix C), • A case study of North Carolina to illustrate the importance of state policy in the renewable energy sector and how it has benefited airports (Appendix D), • A solar feasibility study for Monterey Regional Airport (MRY) to show the specific elements considered when assessing technical and financial feasibility (Appendix E), and • Sample request for proposals (RFPs) from airport renewable energy projects (Appendix F, which is located on the TRB website at: http://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/172634.aspx. This guidebook is designed to be a stand-alone reference with links to other sources of material as needed. However, it also complements and can be used in conjunction with several other ACRP publications, notably: • ACRP Synthesis 19: Airport Revenue Diversification • ACRP Legal Research Digest 7: Airport Governance and Ownership • ACRP Synthesis 28: Investigating Safety Impacts of Energy Technologies on Airports and Aviation • ACRP Report 108: Guidebook for Energy Facilities Compatibility with Airports and Airspace • ACRP Report 110: Evaluating Impacts of Sustainability Practices on Airport Operations and Maintenance The predominant message from this report is that airports and renewable energy have a strong association given their long-term business interests and common values that are best exemplified for a variety of different types and sizes of airports in the Chapter 5 case summa- ries. If there is limited time to invest in reading this report, the reader should move directly to Chapter 5 to see what airports are actually achieving in the field of renewable energy today.