New Parking Lot Solar Canopies Helping Power The SLO County Airport
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (KEYT) - The power of the sun is now helping power up the San Luis Obispo County Airport.
This week, the county-operated facility received a "Permission to Operate" for its brand new 940-kilowatt (kW) solar energy system.
"This is a huge achievement for us," said Annie Secrest, San Luis Obispo County Airport Sustainability Manager. "The airport has been looking at ways to improve its environmental stewardship, and one of the ways that came to surface was solar, and solar would really be a visual demonstration of our commitment to sustainability."
The project has been in the works since 2022 and has been installed in the airport's main parking lot.
Several canopy structures are now in place over many of the lot's nearly parking stalls, which represents 65% of the airport's overall total of guest parking.
"What better way to demonstrate than on a hot day like today, where we actually can look at the cars and see that they're being sheltered from the sun," said Secrest. "The shaded parking also provides protection from the elements when it is raining here. There's also nice LED lighting underneath and so the passengers will be able to see really well during those early morning and late nights flights as well."
According to the airport, the solar project is a big step forward is helping it achieve several goals, including a long-term commitment to environmental stewardship, operational resilience and responsible use of public resources.
"We've locked in our price per electricity for every unit that's coming off the solar system for the next 20 years," said Secrest. "What that allows us to do is stabilize the electricity rate for 20 years, which helps us budget and helps us figure out where we can spend money and on what services."
Construction was a two-part process that began last June. Worked finished up right before Thanksgiving and the airport has been waiting to receive its Permission to Operate, which finally arrived this week.
"It takes a long time to figure out what the appropriate sizing is going to be to do forward," said Secrest. "Projecting on what electricity use we're going to have in the next several years to make sure we size appropriately, and then going through the iterative process of actually designing, working with the various county departments or external stakeholders or developers or utilities, and so all of those partners came together over the past several years, and so this is a really big moment for us to be able to open the entire parking lot and say it's open."
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