Pittsburgh Airport to Expand Solar Array Next Year
The next phase of Pittsburgh International Airport’s energy plan includes a solar project on otherwise unused property that will more than double its existing array and generate an additional 4.7 megawatts of power.
The airport, which became the first worldwide in 2021 to be entirely powered by a microgrid, announced plans late last month to partner with utility Duquesne Light Company (DLC) and IMG Energy Solutions for the installation of 11,216 solar panels to be located adjacent to the airport’s existing 10,000-panel solar field, part of the airport’s 21-megawatt microgrid.
The airport’s microgrid is an energy plant composed of five natural gas-fired generators capable of producing 21 megawatts of electricity. Photo Courtesy of the Pittsburgh International Airport
The new array will sit on12 acres of airport-owned land that once was a landfill for construction debris, said Jamie Habberfield, senior manager of business development at IMG, which Liberty Power Innovations acquired in March. Under the deal, IMG will own and operate the expanded solar array and sell the power to DLC under a power purchase agreement. DLC will distribute the power to the regional grid.
IMG already owns and operates the solar part of the microgrid and operates the gas plant that it also designed.
“It is IMG’s proprietary design that we used to build the plant, and then we also operated it for the first four years under contract,” Habberfield said.
Peoples Natural Gas, which owned the microgrid, sold the asset to Cordia in 2023.
“There’s nothing hazardous in [the landfill], which was a piece of property that could not be developed for any other commercial reasons,” he said, “and so it was agreed by everyone involved that that was a great place to put a solar project.”
Construction is expected to start on the project in 2026, with completion anticipated in the first half of 2027. It is too early to say when EPC or specialty contractors for the project will be selected, Habberfield said.
The PJM interconnection review process may not be completed until the fall, Habberfield said.
“At that point, we will have to move forward with final budgets and financing, so we wouldn’t be prepared to move forward with any contractor selection for several quarters,” he added.
Up Next
Other energy initiatives at the airport–which has completed about 90% of its $1.1 billion terminal modernization project–include development of a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant as well as an integrated hydrogen and SAF production facility.
The airport will act as a “strategic landlord” for those projects in that developers will need to enter long-term lease agreements with the airport, which will not necessarily have a stake in the projects, said Chad Willis, vice president of planning, environmental and sustainability at the Allegheny County Airport Authority, which manages the airport.
Earlier this year, the airport signed a lease agreement with green energy developer Avina to develop and build the SAF plant on the south side of the airport’s facilities.
“We have been in negotiations and discussions with Avina for quite some time,” Willis said. The airport has acres of land to the south of its airfield that can be used for commercial development, he added.
Plans call for the facility to be developed in phases with the exact initial size yet to be determined, he said. “Right now the initial phase is planned to be between 25 and 50 million gallons per year of production,” he said. By the end of the program, the final build-out will likely be more than 100 million and up to about 125 million gallons a year.
Willis said he could not provide specific project start and end dates for the work. “We’re hoping to get to a final investment decision on the project later this year,” he said. “That will inform the construction timeline, but we’re hoping to be in construction starting in early 2026.”
Projects like the SAF plant typically take about two to two and half years to complete, he said, “so we don’t have a final date quite yet when we expect to be open, but we’re hoping for late 2028 or early 2029.”
If the project goes through, the airport would score another first as the only one to produce SAF on-site, Willis said.
Government Incentives
Last year, CNX Resources signed a letter of intent with KeyState Energy to build a $1.5 billion facility on airport property that can produce either hydrogen solely, or SAF exclusively. But the project is contingent on whether the federal government “enables a pathway” for coal mine methane under Section 45V hydrogen production tax credit, part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), CNX said.
Federal tax credits for clean energy production–including 45V as well as the Investment Tax Credit (ITC), which the airport’s solar expansion is eligible for–are currently being heavily debated in Congress as lawmakers wrangle over the tax portion of the budget reconciliation bill.
CNX did not respond to requests for comment.