US power company Dominion Energy and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) have started construction work on a 100MW solar project at the Dulles International Airport.
The project will also include a battery energy storage system (BESS). The output of this system was given in a release by Dominion as 50MW, but the energy storage capacity, and therefore duration, of the BESS was not specified.The groups agreed to build the project at the Virginia airport in 2019, and regulators including the US Department of Transportation granted final approval for the facility earlier this year. Dominion Energy expects construction to be completed by late 2026, at which point the project have the largest capacity of any solar project installed at a US airport.”This groundbreaking marks the beginning of a historic achievement – a first-of-its-kind renewable energy project at a major US airport,” said Virginia Senator Mark Warner. “I’m hopeful this partnership will serve as a model for future renewable energy projects across the country, paving the way for a greener, energy-independent future.”
The project is also notable for the fact that MWAA and Dominion have not signed a power purchase agreement (PPA), that would see Dominion acquire the electricity generated by the project for a fee. Instead, Dominion will receive power from the solar farm, and in return, construct charging facilities and provide electric vehicles for the Dulles airport to use.To read the full story, visit PV Tech.
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