The Albuquerque International Sunport officially became a little sunnier this week when it flipped the switch on the final phase of its 1-megawatt solar installation.

Affordable Solar installed the solar system at the city-run airport. While Affordable Solar is based in Albuquerque, this was the first project the solar company completed for the city government, said Nick Babick, director of project development. “That was a good milestone for us,” Babick said. “Albuquerque is a town that tends to prefer to work with local businesses.”

Affordable installed SCHOTT solar panels on existing parking structures at the airport. SCHOTT also has a major solar panel manufacturing facility in Albuquerque, which allowed the project to use all local business, Babick said.

There were 1,750 panels installed on five large parking structures in the third and final phase of the project, which on its own will generate 411-kilowatts of clean energy.  The project was designed as a long-term hedge against rising utility costs.

The airport applied for a Vale (voluntary airport low emissions) grant from the Federal Aviation Agency to pay for the installation. The final phase will offset about $30,000 in annual energy costs and will produce enough electricity to power about 100 homes, according to a release about the project.

The project was also a boon to local contractors, Babick said. “With the economy, construction has not been very good,” he said. “This job created work for us and for other construction trades that don’t have a lot of work right now.”

The installation was not out of the ordinary for Affordable Solar other than that it was the first installation the company has done for the city, Babick said. “This is about mid-range for us,” he said.Affordable, founded in 1998, has three arms of its business – one distributes solar panels to other installers, one handles residential installations and the third manages larger commercial installations.