The Melbourne Airport of today is not the Melbourne Airport we remember. People shuffling past security check-in, waving goodbye to their relatives, stumbling from the Maccas outside the gate to the Maccas inside the gate...those were heady days. Naturally, with everyone staying home, the airport has been very quiet over the past few months. But thankfully, Melbourne Airport has been using this time to build something.
Melbourne Airport is constructing a new solar farm to provide power to the four passenger terminals that sit in the Tullamarine site. The farm is expected to open in early 2021 and will produce 17 GW hours of electricity every year – which is about 15 per cent of the airport’s annual electricity consumption.
Melbourne Airport chief of landside access, utilities and facilities group, Lorie Argus, said “The project is expected to deliver significant annualised energy cost savings, a timely benefit with the impacts of Covid-19 wreaking havoc on the aviation industry. We are committed to growing the airport in an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable way. This renewable energy project is another chapter in that story.”
If the solar panels work as well as the airport wifi (how is it always better than my home internet???) then we’re going to be very happy.
Keep an eye out for it the next time you fly in or out of Melbourne Airport.