About $14 million is going to be spent on placing solar farms at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport. At the moment 7 to 10 acres of the airport’s property is going to be set aside for these solar projects. The solar power will only be enough to power a small percentage of the airport’s energy, but eventually the airport wants to expand its solar farms to cover much more of Charlotte/Douglas International’s 6000 acres of land. Jerry Orr, the airport director says that if the project proves to be economically feasible, they will be expanding the solar farms in the near future.
This move was inspired largely by Denver International Airport, who completed their solar farm project last year, as well as Long Beach Airport in California. Denver International opted for a 5 acre solar panel farm, which is billed the largest solar farm for any US airport. It currently produces 3.5 million kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, meaning that the Charlotte/Douglas project will produce more. The one in California was much smaller, with 6 solar “trees” used around the airport containing 9 foot by 9 foot panels mounted together on poles.
Currently, Charlotte/Douglas is planning to sell the energy produced by the solar farm to Duke Energy Carolinas to offset their costs. This move has been confirmed by Duke Spokesperson Andy Thompson, says that they are currently negotiating a purchase power agreement. Charlotte/Douglas International has started their solar power initiative with the smaller $700 000 rooftop project, which will allow solar panels to be placed on a 130 000 square foot building near one of the new parking decks. This is expected to take about 6 months to complete, after which the airport will be taking construction bids for the rest of the solar power projects. This project is going to offer some great new airport jobs, and will prove to be the start of many more like it, meaning that you will be able to search for lots of other jobs at airports. You can start your search when you go to the Airline Job Finder website.
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