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Tim Pugmire

Minnesota's largest solar power site to land atop airport

Solar installation
This illustration shows what the solar arrays will look like from the top floor of the Red Garage at MSP Terminal 1.
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Airports Commission and Ameresco, Inc.

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Construction of the state's largest solar power generation site got underway today Thursday at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

The one-year, $25.4 million project will install an array on the roof of the Terminal 1 parking ramp that's expected to generate 3 megawatts, or nearly 20 percent of the airport's total electricity. The airport is also converting more than 7,700 parking ramp light fixtures to LEDs to save energy.

Solar installation
This aerial view image of the MSP Terminal 1 parking ramps shows where solar arrays are being constructed. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Airports Commission and Ameresco, Inc.
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Airports Commission and Ameresco, Inc.

"This is a significant move forward ... to look for ways to reduce the demand on energy, finding sustainable measures and ways of providing the power we need without polluting the air and the ground," said Jeff Hamiel, executive director of the Metropolitan Airports Commission.

Hamiel said construction of the solar project will create 250 jobs.

An Xcel Energy grant will fund $2 million of the project's cost while $23 million is being financed through a federal loan program for energy conservation projects, a Metropolitan Airports Commission spokeswoman said.