The Iowa City Municipal Airport is beginning its solar array installation project after months of planning. The array construction will begin on Monday.

The airport received $442,800 in Federal Aviation Administration funding earlier this year as a result of the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by Congress in November 2021.

Bids for contractor applications opened in March, and shortly thereafter, the airport chose to go along with the company Solar by Brandt, a division of Brandt Heating and Air Conditioning and a 73-year-old business in Iowa City, said Solar by Brandt Manager Teri VanDyke said.

VanDyke was the main point of contact for the project, which is Brandt’s first city-connected project since the solar division launched in August 2023.

The project, VanDyke says, will be cost-beneficial for the airport, the city, and taxpayers as it will substantially reduce the budgetary burden of the airport’s current electric expenditures.

The airport commission started looking at options for solar power in 2020, but did not have the budget, Airport Manager Michael Tharp said.

“With the infrastructure law and the money we got from that, it gave us a revenue stream that worked great,” he said. The airport is receiving $290,000 annually in FAA funds for five years, beginning in 2021, to handle these infrastructure projects.

With federal funding, the airport can buy, operate, and reap the rewards immediately upon the array’s installation. Tharp said the contractor has 40 days from the start date to install the array.

RELATED: Iowa City airport receives funding to install solar panels

Additionally, the project will cost $1.2 million, including both phases of the project, he said.

The project is split into two parts. The first part is commencing on Monday and will cover infrastructure on the city’s account, such as the terminal building, the runway lighting, and the ambulatory building. Other structures, such as hangars, are leased out to other parties. Some of those structures will be addressed by the project’s second phase, Tharp said.

He said that the airport’s yearly utility bill amounts to approximately $22,000 out of the airport’s $400,000 budget. The array aims to eliminate half of that cost. To Tharp, eliminating those added expenditures will help the airport run more efficiently and see a more stable income.

“It is purely budgetary,” Tharp said. “Money is getting tighter. We’re self-sufficient, so we have to be able to manage that.”

Tharp said the first set of panels will occupy a piece of ground just north of the terminal building, in a square pattern surrounding hydrology research equipment placed there by University of Iowa researchers. The area is flagged off right now, but once the project is underway, the panels will be installed at an elevation of two feet to account for the flood plain.

Tharp added that there was research done to evaluate the array’s impacts on the airport environment. Sarah Gardner, the climate action coordinator for Iowa City’s Climate Action and Outreach department, said people often have misconceptions about solar arrays, especially at airports.

“There is a misconception that the glare [from panels] will affect planes landing,” Gardner said. “Panels absorb light, not emit it.”

Gardner said the arrays will include 104 total kilowatts of solar power. She believes the arrays will help with the reputation of using solar power.

“The project demonstrates the ways solar can be a compatible use where land is already being used for other purposes,” she said.