Airport Terminal—Energy Efficiency and 500 kW Solar Array

At Terminal 3 of San Francisco International Airport, BASS Electric increased efficiency of existing electrical assets, and installed one of our most ambitious solar electric roof arrays to date. By addressing both generation and consumption, the airport was able to combine the short term payback of energy efficiency upgrades with the long term need for renewable, locally generated electricity.

Our energy efficiency solution included upgrading 4,239 lighting  fixtures and resulted in:

• Reduced daily demand by 395 kW
• Annual energy savings of 3,460,261 kWh
• $278,600 annual energy cost savings

Our 500 kW solar array on the roof of Terminal 3 is part of a City of San Francisco green initiative to get 20% of power from renewable resources by the year 2012. We won the job in a public competitive bid, and Mayor Gavin Newsom presided over the grand opening in August 2007.

We engineered and installed a state-of-the-art 500 kW photovoltaic generation system with:

• Nearly 3,000 SunTech modules on a SunLink rack system
• Curved array maintaining unique aesthetic of building
• Easy access to support roof structure without relocating solar array

BASS Electric finished the project on time and on budget, with no change orders, even providing a slightly increased capacity over original design parameters. The power generated from the photovoltaic array covers approximately 15% of the Terminal’s annual electric consumption and will avoid about 7,200 tons of Carbon Dioxide emissions over a 30 year period.