Rockford Solar Partners has received an environmental approval from the US Department of Energy (DOE) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to build a commercial airport solar farm at the Rockford Airport in the US state of Illinois. Rockford Solar Partners, a US-based joint venture company between Wanxiang America and New Generation Power for a sustainable energy development, will install solar arrays at Chicago-Rockford International Airport, which is anticipated to be the largest commercial airport solar farm in the US.
The DOE and FAA have issued FONSI “Finding of No Significant Impact” for the project. The solar farm is
estimated to yield up to 20MW of power and will be installed over 70 acres of the airport.
Wanxiang America, a US-based arm of Wanxiang Group of China, will supply the photovoltaic panels needed for the system, which will be produced at Wanxiang’s Rockford-based solar panel assembly plant.
Rockford Solar Partners has announced its long term plans to scale up the project to 62MW capacity. The company has already entered into a 20-year power purchase agreement with Ameren Illinois that will acquire both the energy as well as renewable attributes from the project.