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“The federal government incentivizes growth of renewable vitality, corresponding to photo voltaic and wind, by the usage of tax credit and accelerated depreciation,” mentioned Miriam S. Wrobel, a senior managing director at FTI Consulting in San Francisco. “Typically, public entities corresponding to airports can’t make the most of the tax advantages, so third events personal the belongings and promote the vitality generated to the airport.”
Costs are locked for 20 to 25 years, however the proprietor will get paid solely when the vitality is flowing.
The bid for the Tallahassee venture was gained by Origis Vitality, a Miami agency that provides clear vitality storage options. Johan Vanhee, Origis’s chief business officer, mentioned the airport venture was a departure for the corporate. “We’re a wholesale generator of renewable vitality,” he mentioned. “Ninety-nine % of our crops will not be on airports.”
However specialists say the reducing worth of photo voltaic modules and the Infrastructure Funding and Jobs Act allocating $25 billion to airports could alter the share.
A decade in the past, a module alone value round $2.50 per watt, and now a complete utility-scale photovoltaic system prices round $1 per watt, mentioned David J. Feldman, a senior monetary analyst in Washington for the Nationwide Renewable Vitality Laboratory, a analysis heart based mostly in Golden, Colo., and funded by the Vitality Division.
“Photo voltaic prices have come down considerably within the final decade,” mentioned Alicen Kandt, senior engineer on the Nationwide Renewable Vitality Lab. “It turns into interesting in areas that will appear lower than ideally suited.”
A type of missed areas is Maine, the place a photo voltaic venture proposed for Augusta State Airport is anticipated to offer 7.5 megawatts of capability, all of it returned to the grid.
“It’s open house, no hazard to anyone, the state owns it, and it helps taxpayers and the surroundings,” Paul Merrill, a spokesman for Maine’s Division of Transportation, mentioned of the venture, which is anticipated to save lots of the state $6 million over 20 years.
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