Sun shines brightly on Pittsburgh International Airport
Courtesy of Metro Creative
Pittsburgh International Airport – located in Findlay and Moon townships – became the first airport in the world to be powered entirely by a natural gas/solar energy microgrid.
Jamie Habberfield
Jeff Nehr
Tom Woodrow
On a Zoom platform, appropriately on a bright, warm mid-February morning, Pittsburgh International Airport was basking in the limelight of a global achievement.
Seven months ago, Pittsburgh International Airport – located in Findlay and Moon townships – became the first airport in the world to be powered entirely by a natural gas/solar energy microgrid. Smaller than a traditional energy grid, a microgrid is an independent electricity source that can operate on its own while staying connected to the traditional grid.
That’s the only “micro” element of the story, which was presented in fascinating fashion during a webinar Wednesday presented by Washington & Jefferson College’s Center for Energy Policy and Management.
“We’re increasingly looking at solar as a major power source,” said Jamie Habberfield, business development manager for IMG Energy Solutions, which was involved with the project. “There are a lot of benefits to solar power, and using it with natural gas can be a good combination. This is the future of where the electric grid is going in Pennsylvania.”
The hour-long session — titled “First in the World: An Airport That Generates Its Own Power” — was part of CEPM’s annual Energy Lecture Series. The event was free and open to the public, which drew a generous audience.
Habberfield was joined on the virtual dais by Tom Woodrow, senior vice president of Engineering and Intelligent Infrastructure for the Allegheny County Airport Authority, and Jeff Nehr, vice president of Business Development for Peoples Natural Gas.
This hybrid microgrid enables the airport to generate all of its electricity requirements. It is autonomous, and would allow Pittsburgh International Airport to operate if a major grid power outage occurred. The microgrid also enables the airport to save money on energy usage.
“There were four goals for this project,” Woodrow said, citing cost, reliance, reliability, sustainability of Pittsburgh International Airport operations and support of the local natural gas industry. “If something happens to the grid, you need backup.”
Something did happen to the grid during the region’s recent ice storm, he added. “We had a brief power outage and the power backup worked.”
The airport authority board, in 2019, awarded Peoples Natural Gas a 20-year contract to design, build, maintain and operate the microgrid at no cost to the airport. IMG Energy Solutions owns and operates the solar component.
Natural gas, purchased from Southpointe-based CNX Resources Corp., is sourced from Marcellus Shale wells located on airport property.
About 10,000 solar panels are arranged on an eight-acre tract of the airport property. Those panels are capable of producing about 20 megawatts of electricity, which would power more than 13,000 residential homes.
Habberfield said the the site is a closed landfill, “which wasn’t going to get much use.” The installation of a steel post racking system was installed to support the panels there, which, like all landfills across Pennsylvania, is regulated by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Habberfield is impressed by this project, and energized by it.
“We’re hoping this solar array will last 40 or 50 years, and we have every expectation that it will produce solar power for that time.”