PORT TOWNSEND — When a new solar array lands at Jefferson County International Airport, green energy will take off for the first time at the Port of Port Townsend-owned aviation center.
Port Townsend’s Powertrip Energy and a consortium of 12 investors — the Jefferson Solar Group — have funded the $150,000 project.
Powertrip’s crew in the next two weeks will install the 17-kilowatt, 88-panel, 1,400-square-foot array on a 10,000-square-foot patch of land at the airport’s west end, near state Highway 20.
“We should have it up and running by the end of the year, and it’s going to provide more than enough energy for the runway lights and navigational beacon,” said Andy Cochrane, Powertrip Energy’s president.
Cochrane said he hoped the project “can act as a template for other ports in the state to follow.
“There are only a couple of these community solar projects in the state, even though the legislation was passed a couple of years ago,” he said.
The 2009 legislation Cochrane speaks of was Senate Bill 6170; the legislation provides renewable energy credits of up to $1.08 per kilowatt-hour for renewable solar energy credits or a maximum of $5,000 per year.
The state also offers renewable-energy sales and use tax exemptions.
Add to that a 30 percent federal incentive, under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and the investor group will see a return, as Powertrip and port representatives said.
“We’re not going to make money on this, but it’s going to show our commitment to green energy,” said port Deputy Director Jim Pivarnik.
Pivarnik added that the power from the sun also will generate about half of the port-owned hangar’s annual energy need.
That hangar is leased from the port by Tailspin Tommy’s, an aircraft repair shop and flight school.
Port of Port Townsend commissioners unanimously agreed Tuesday to lease the airport land for $450 a year to the consortium after the Federal Aviation Administration, which funds the port for airport infrastructure, approved the project.
Jefferson County permits also were secured.
The solar array will connect to the navigational beacon’s power shed and be surrounded by a 7-foot-high fence.
The group agrees to maintain the property inside the fence while the port will mow the grass outside the fence, Pivarnik said.
The port in effect leases the land in return for free power generated from the community system.
The state’s incentive plan runs to 2020, at which time Pivarnik recommends the port purchase the system, which is expected to function up to 40 years.
“It has been a major learning process, and we will be going back to the Legislature in the spring with our experience and let them know ways we think the program should be improved to make it more likely others will go ahead with similar projects,” Cochrane said.
He said his goal is to maintain Jefferson County as No. 1 in the state with customers owning renewable-energy systems.
There are 120 of Jefferson County’s 15,000 Puget Sound Energy customers on solar power systems, or 0.8 percent, compared with the next highest per capita rate in Kittatas County, at 0.35 percent, according to Cochrane.
Pivarnik said the solar system could be expanded in the future to accommodate other airport facilities.
He said the port has plans in the future to develop small manufacturing sites south of the runway.
The project should be a model for other port districts around the state, Pivarnik said.
“We are the only airport in the state to my knowledge that will be powered 100 percent for runway and navigational light systems,” he said.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
