While a University of Colorado Denver researcher found that only 20% of 488 public airports she surveyed have adopted solar panels for use in the past decade, Oklahoma City’s is not one of them.
It’s the finding of School of Public Affairs researcher Dr. Serena Kim who questioned the airports about adoption of solar photovoltaic panels, which convert light into electricity.
Oklahoma City’s Will Rogers World Airport is not one of them. Joshua Ryan, a marketing spokesman for the city’s airport department told OK Energy Today, “We are not currently using solar energy to supply power on a large scale. We use solar for what our planning and development manager refers to as individual localized equipment or lighting. The lighting in the Lot #2 bus shelters is powered by solar.”
The Wiley Post airport had no solar power either.
In her study, Dr. Kim found that airports operated by general-purpose governments such as cities, states and counties deployed solar panels more than the special-purpose governments such as a port or airport authority, at least as of 2020.
Kim discovered that airports involved in professional organizations are more likely to deploy solar panels, but this relationship is contingent on airport governance. Airport solar deployment increases by airports’ professional organization membership, but with a higher rate for special-purpose airports than general-purpose airports.
One of the airports studied was Denver International Airport (DIA, as state residents know it, although the official abbreviation is DEN). Since 2008, DIA has become one of the largest solar projects in the U.S., installing 42,614 solar panels on a total of 56 acres.
While reducing the airport’s carbon footprint by operating 10 megawatts (MW) solar facilities, DIA pays less than the average electricity cost for the energy generated from the solar arrays built after 2012.
Other airports involved in this study include Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Tallahassee International Airport, and Orlando International Airport.
We are not currently using solar energy to supply power on
Source: ScienceDaily
