General Design Procedures for Airport-Based Solar Photovoltaic Systems

Abstract

A source of large surface areas for solar photovoltaic (PV) farms that has been largely overlooked in the 13,000 United States of America (U.S.) airports. This paper hopes to enable PV deployments in most airports by providing an approach to overcome the three primary challenges identified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA): (1) reflectivity and glare; (2) radar interference; and (3) physical penetration of airspace. First, these challenges and precautions that must be adhered to for safe PV projects deployment at airports are reviewed and summarized. Since one of the core concerns for PV and airport symbiosis is solar panel reflectivity, and because this data is largely estimated, a controlled experiment is conducted to determine worst-case values of front panel surface reflectivity and compare them to theoretical calculations. Then a general approach to implement solar PV systems in an airport is outlined and this approach is applied to a case study airport. The available land was found to be over 570 acres, which would generate more than 39,000% of the actual annual power demand of the existing airport. The results are discussed while considering the scaling potential of airport-based PV systems throughout the U.S.

Design and Simulation Analysis of 1 MWP Grid-Connected Photovoltaic System at Gaziantep Airport, Turkey

“…(13) There is a close relationship between ambient temperature and losses (capture and system). (14) The annual average module efficiency is 14.62 %, and the system efficiency is 14.37 %. (15) Considering the annual energy generation and initial investment cost of the proposed system, payback period is found as 4.26 years.…”

“…If an airport is located in a rural or remote location, there is a relatively large area of land per unit load within the airport. In this case, the system design should be ground-mounted rather than roof-mounted PV or building integrated (BIPV) [14].…”

Environmentally Sustainable Airport Energy Management Using Solar Power Technology: The Case of Adelaide Airport, Australia

“…The likely impacts of a solar system PV module reflectivity could result in either glint or glare, or possibly both. This may result in a brief loss often vision, which would be a safety concern for aircraft pilots (Anurag et al, 2017). Consequently, glare due to the reflection of sunlight from the metal parts of a solar PV panel could potentially provide a risk that could affect aviation safety (Mostafa et al, 2016).…”

Aesthetic impact of solar energy systems

“…Thus, 50% of the reviewed studies limit their analysis to the rural environment, 20% to the urban environment, whereas 30% include both environments in their research. x x x Preferences for residential solar panels U [19] x x x x x Aesthetic impact of PV plants R [49] x x Glare impact R+U [50] x GIS Visual impact measure with GIS R [9] x x Glare impact R+U [20] x x x x x x x Landscape Integration of PV plants R [51] x x Glare impact R+U [43] x x x Q-sort in urban and rural settings R+U [7] x x x x x x x x x x Review R+U [22] x x x x Aesthetic assessment in environmental impact assessments R [52] x According to Zangwill's Aesthetic Creation Theory [38], which classifies the properties of a landscape as aesthetics (elegance, balance, etc.) or non-aesthetics (shape, size, etc.…”

“…Several countries have special regulations for solar installations to guarantee traffic safety, especially nearly to airports. For these situations, specific design procedures and protocols have been described in order to enable the use of PV in most airports [52].…”