Sacramento International Airport to power future operations with on-site solar farm

Solar energy has been an increasingly used source of power because of its economical and environmental benefits according to Adam C. Schultz, program manager of the University of California, Davis Energy Institute. “What’s happened is that the cost of solar has come down dramatically in the last 10 years…I would say it costs less than 50 percent of what it costed 10 years ago. And a lot of that is driven by [technological] advances but also, particularly in California, the state renewable portfolio standard which requires, by law, 33 percent of energy to be from renewable sources of energy by 2020,” Schultz said. Schultz added a brief explanation of the negative environmental impacts that solar energy would offset. Aside from renewable sources of energy, Schultz said we mostly rely on some large hydroelectric plants, the big dam in the Sierras and natural gas facilities. “Natural gas facilities have several air pollution impacts…[They] cause local air quality impact and result in ozone issues…You get this air quality impact whenever you’re relying on any kind of fossil fuel, whether it’s natural gas or in other states, coal. So when you’re putting in solar, you’re offsetting that,”  Schultz said.

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