By Brian Trompeter
Passengers flying in and out of Washington Dulles International Airport in a few years will see a shimmering example of renewable energy.
Officials from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) and Dominion Energy broke ground Aug. 22 on the Dulles Solar & Storage project, which will install more than 200,000 solar panels covering 835 acres in the southwest corner of the Dulles site – an area nearly equal in size to Dulles’s sibling, the 875-acre Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
The initiative will be the largest renewable-energy project ever built at a U.S. airport, said Ed Baine, president of Dominion Energy Virginia.
“This project has blazed the trail for all that’s to follow,” Baine said. “We just don’t want that to happen in the commonwealth. We want that to happen across the nation.”
The $200 million project will be financed with revenues from the non-bypassable “Rider CE (Clean Energy)” charge on all Dominion customers’ bills. Black & Veatch will serve as the initiative’s general contractor.
The solar-energy equipment will generate up to 100 megawatts of electricity – enough to power more than 37,000 thousand houses – and store up to 50 megawatts of electricity. All of the electricity produced will be used by Dominion Energy Virginia customers, officials said.
Many of the solar panels will be located around the airport’s runways. The U.S. Department of Transportation approved the initiative as aviation-compatible, an MWAA spokesman said. The Federal Aviation Administration, Virginia State Corporation Commission and other state and federal agencies also reviewed the project.
Instead of making an annual lease payments to MWAA, Dominion Energy will develop two 1-megawatt solar carports, which partially will power facilities at the airport. In addition, the utility will provide 18 electric buses, 50 electric fleet vehicles and electric-vehicle-charing stations for Dulles operations.
Construction for the project likely will begin late this year and be completed by late 2026, officials said. The initiative will support about 300 jobs during construction and generate an estimate $200 million in regional economic activity, Baine said.
The project supports MWAA’s goal of promoting economic development in the National Capital Region, said Jack Potter, the Airports Authority’s president and CEO.
The electric-vehicle-charging stations will be installed both in parking areas and on the airfield, where they will power electric vehicles that handle baggage and service aircraft, Potter said.
Potter thanked Dominion Energy officials and members of MWAA’s staff and board of directors for their efforts in the initiative.
“The vision, dedication and hard work of everyone involve have been instrumental in moving this project forward” for the benefit of the environment, traveling public, regional economy and people in the communities served, Potter said.
“This is an exciting moment for the future of clean, reliable energy, not only for Virginia but for the entire country,” said Dominion Energy CEO Bob Blue.
The solar-energy project and recent extension of Metro’s Silver line to Dulles have burnished the reputations of both the airport and region, said Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay (D).
The array of solar panels will be “exactly the type of forward image we want to make sure that the world sees, but also that our residents here see,” he said.
