You will begin to receive our Daily Business News updates. The county in 2015 was the first Iowa county to enter into a power purchase agreement and has since initiated additional agreements and purchased solar arrays outright. The county has solar arrays that generate electricity for some of its government buildings. Tharp said the airport is using the Johnson County solar arrays as an example. The solar installation will likely be a combination of ground mounted and rooftop mounted panels. “With CMT on board, we’ll be taking a second look at the sizing of the system, the location of panels due to net metering, and other rules/restrictions, and confirming the total estimated costs so we can move forward with the project,” Tharp said. Before working with CMT, the airport anticipated the project to cost $400,000 to $500,000, with annual savings of $30,000 to $40,000. The project cost and annual savings will be revisited as work with CMT begins, Tharp said.

CMT has offices in nine states and has experience working with airports that have had the same goal as Iowa City. 8 meeting selected engineering and planning firm Crawford, Murphy & Tilly (CMT) to serve as the consultant for this project. “We're trying to focus those funds on putting a solar power array here where we can run or at least offset some of the workings of the runway lighting, the terminal building, the maintenance shop and the research lab where we have our high electrical uses,” Tharp said.

Iowa city municipal airport