Business View Magazine | February 2020

109 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2020 THE ROGUE VALLEY INTERNAT IONAL -MEDFORD A I RPORT purchasing another 38-plus acres on the other side of our Airport to attract businesses. This tract of property will enable us to talk to very large aircraft manufacturing companies when we attend trade shows. When major aviation companies get contracts, they have to move and they have to move quickly, so we want to have large tracts of land in our inventory so that, in the event one of these companies has to build a factory or some sort of maintenance/repair facility quickly because they get a contract with the DoD, we have the land to offer them. And within a 38-acre site, you can build a million- square-foot facility. This particular tract, we don’t currently own; we do have about 75 acres, however, available for other purposes. The way they’re configured, though, it’s not ideal to put a big facility in there; just a series of smaller ones.” In 2012, the Airport broke ground on its first renewable energy project. Funded, in part, through Pacific Power’s Blue Sky Block program, the project included the installation of a 15kW solar-electric system mounted to a 30’ x 60’ standing seam metal roof canopy covering the three toll booths servicing long and short-term parking. In 2014, a new 25-kW array, intended to further reduce the facility’s dependence on fossil fuels, was completed. The new array is mounted on three canopies located on the primary walkway from the parking lot to the Terminal. In 2015, the Airport completed its third Blue Sky project, the Net Zero Parking Project. This project included an additional 25kW solar photovoltaic system mounted on three new canopies, adding an additional 11kW capacity to the existing canopy over the parking toll booth; replacement of 137 pole-mounted metal halide parking lot light fixtures with LED; and the installation of an electric car charging system. The Airport now has approximately 16 acres of parking with a net zero carbon footprint. “The solar panels have a dual function,” says Brienza. “They capture power to pay for our parking lot lighting and toll booth electricity, so we’re getting that on a rebated basis back from the electric company, and the way they’re designed, they also act as a