100 MW Solar Project Planned For US Airport

US utility Dominion Energy Virginia along with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority is working on the development of a large-scale 100 MW solar power plant with connection to the utility’s existing transmission line located on property owned by the Dulles International Airport.

A feasibility study will be conducted under a sublease agreement between the two for the project that could be spread on close to 1,200-acre land and will be one of the largest solar facilities in Northern Virginia. Power generated from such a facility could 25,000 homes at peak output, said Dominion Energy, which will supply the green power to regional customers.

If all goes well, the 100 MW project may come online by 2023 and contribute to Dominion Energy’s goal to have 3 GW of wind and solar power capacity in operation or under development by 2022, in line with its larger vision to reduce its CO2 emissions 55% by 2030.

In September 2019, Dominion Energy announced acquiring two solar PV projects with 15 MW and 80 MW capacity from Savion LLC, a subsidiary of Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG). Both the projects are expected to come online in the second half of 2020. Power generated by these facilities along with their renewable energy credits will be supplied to telecommunications firm T-Mobile USA, Inc. under long term contracts.

In April 2019, the utility entered into an agreement to acquire 350 MW solar PV capacity from EDF Renewables, BayWa and Strata Solar to supply to Facebook (see Dominion Energy Partners With Facebook For 350 MW PV).