The Tallahassee Regional Airport in Florida is testing the renewable energy waters with a new solar installation.

The airport flipped the switch on its 20-kilowatt solar array Nov. 1, and officials plan to monitor it to see if expanded use of solar would be a good investment for the facility.

“It’s a $155,000 system, so one can’t expect it to make a big difference in our overall energy expenses, said Sunil Harman, director of aviation. “It will probably save us around $5,000 to $7,000 a year.”

Harman said that Federal tax credits for solar and a Department of Transportation grant made this project extremely attractive financially.

“Now we’ll monitor this system to determine if it makes fiscal sense for us to scale up and expand it in the future,” Harman said.

The airport staff will be measuring the energy generation from the system to see if it produces as much as manufacturers and installers promised.

“We’ll probably have to monitor it for at least a year before we can determine if it performs as promised,” Harman said.

The 176 solar photovoltaic panels are expected to save the airport 45,000-kilowatt hours of power and offset 36 tons of carbon emissions.

People have been calling and coming to the airport to see the system and ask about it, Harman said.

“There is always a curiosity about innovation projects,” he said.

The Tallahassee Regional Airport joins a long list of airports that have been installing solar. Airports are known to be some of the country’s biggest energy consumers and one of the biggest offenders when it comes carbon emissions because of jet outputs.

Harman said there have been days over the last two weeks when the solar array has approached the upper limits of promised production. But he will wait a full year before he’s convinced of their functionality enough to make a bigger commitment to solar, he said.

Image courtesy of http://www.visitingdc.com.