The Iowa City Municipal Airport is lowering its energy costs and increasing sustainability.

A nearly $450,000 federal grant will help fund a large-scale solar panel installation and transition about half of the airport’s operations to renewable energy. The money comes from the 2021 federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The airport will install 300 solar panels for around $550,000, which includes a 10 percent local match from the City of Iowa City and additional consulting fees. The panels will create enough energy to power lighting along the airport’s runway, terminal and some of its buildings.

The shift to solar power will be finished by the end of the year, airport manager Michael Tharp told the Press-Citizen. The switch will save the airport around $20,000 annually in energy costs.

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Transition is years in the making

Around 300 solar panels will generate year-round solar power, and since the airport is connected to the city’s power grid, any overproduction in the generally sunnier months will be resold to Iowa City’s grid. Additional power needs in the winter will be pulled from the grid.

“I think anything we can do to help put any industry onto renewable energy versus fossil fuels is good for everybody,” Tharp said.

The solar panels will be installed north of the terminal building.

The nearly half-a-million-dollar federal grant means the airport won’t need to outsource its solar power and will instead own the infrastructure.

“It’s a tremendous help and we wouldn’t have been able to do it without the federal funds,” Tharp said.

Tharp expects the project to be bid out in March, with a contract selected in April. The goal is “certainly” to have solar panels converting half of the airport’s operations into clean energy by the end of 2024.

Tharp said that additional parts of the airport will transition to solar energy as well, with phase two kicking off over the next few years.

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Several Iowa airports get federal money

More than $240 million in federal funds was dedicated to “modernizing” airports across more than 40 states this year, part of a nearly $3 billion grant package to improve airport infrastructure.

Several Iowa airports benefitted from the program, including a $10.8 million grant to assist Des Moines International Airport in constructing a new, nearly half-billion dollar terminal. More than $27 million will be distributed annually to the Des Moines airport over five years, around $5.5 million a year.

Des Moines’ new terminal will be similar to the building opened at Kansas City International Airport in early 2023.

Other airports in Boone, Oskaloosa and Denison received grant money to expand their fuel farms. These fuel farms pump jet fuel through underground pipes and often include large storage tanks, which allows airports to forgo frequent trucking costs, further increasing sustainability.

Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at rhansen@press-citizen.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ryanhansen01.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Iowa City Airport will convert to solar energy thanks to a $450K grant