Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport officials said Monday they’re trying to garner a $5 million grant for construction of a solar energy farm.
John Naylor, the airport’s vice president of planning and development, said the solar farm initially could have 4,000 panels installed on the airfield.
He said plans call for the energy to be sold and returned to the electric grid.
“We’d enter into contracts with EPB and TVA,” he said. Naylor said that building infrastructure to tie the airport terminal to the solar farm would be too expensive.
Airport Authority member Jim Hall asked why the solar farm wouldn’t be a hazard to aviation.
Naylor said there are no reflection issues related to the panels. He said the panels would absorb up to 92 percent of light.
Experts, Naylor said, “compare it to the reflection of a pond of water.”
He said an airport in Fresno, Calif., has three solar farms, and that Denver’s airport is building a fourth.
Airport Improvement Magazine said the Fresno Yosemite International Airport has 11,700 solar panels on 9.5 acres of land. The project cost $16 million to build. According to the magazine, the solar farm’s anticipated savings to the airport are $13 million in the first 20 years of operation.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.