WXXI: Proposal Would "Green" Rochester Airport (2009-04-14)

Legislation being introduced in the Monroe County legislature Tuesday could lead to the "greening" of the county's airport.

County Executive Maggie Brooks is proposing to install wind turbines and solar panels on the terminal building, to reduce energy costs. The bill is being introduced by Republican county legislator Steve Tucciarello of Gates and Chili.

Dave Damelio is the airport director for Monroe County. He says the proposal will cut costs for airlines, and hopefully entice them to add more services to and from Rochester.

"We're gonna be putting solar panels on top of the terminal facility itself, along with wind turbines which will take advantage ... of the winds and natural energy that we have out here and we're going to be able to produce [renewable] energy here, cutting the costs of the energy we already consume, which is 100 percent funded by the airlines right now, so it's a great cost savings to the airlines."

Damelio says the solar panels and turbines will be placed so as not to disturb flight patterns at the airport. The turbines will have a much shorter profile than traditional wind turbines, and will be sheltered to prevent them from whipping debris onto the airfield.

Installing the turbines and solar panels is estimated to cost about $800,000. Damelio says the investment will pay for itself within seven to nine years, and is being paid for completely out of airport proceeds, contributions from the airlines, and state grants.

Damelio says no local tax dollars will go toward the project.

Monroe County's airport will be the first in the state, and one of the first in the country to install the sustainable energy equipment.

Damelio says the county executive modeled the proposal off of other projects across the country - notably wind turbines at Logan International Airport in Boston - and incorporated other elements, like solar panels.

The bill is set to be assigned to committee in the next two weeks, and should come up for a vote in May.