To: Javier Gonzales, Mayor, Joseph Maestas, Councilor and Resolution Sponsor, Peter Ives, Councilor and Resolution Sponsor, Michael Harris, Councilor and Resolution Sponsor, and Beth Beloff, Chair, Sustainable Santa Fe Commission
Let's solarize the Santa Fe Airport!
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In the wake of the devastating storms in Texas , the Caribbean, and South Asia, I applaud the City’s commitment to climate change mitigation. Our City’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2040 is commendable and attainable. I applaud the Mayor’s leadership in the coalition of Climate Mayors. I was pleased to learn that the implementation of this commitment took an important step forward this month with the scheduling of a feasibility study to assess how Santa Fe can power all municipal facilities with renewable energy by 2025 that could help our City exceed the targets it set three years ago by City Council resolution to achieve 50 percent renewable energy by 2025.
The City has experienced the cost-saving and benefits of solar from its installations at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center, the Buckman Direct Diversion Project, the Community Convention Center, the Wastewater Treatment Plant, and its Cerrillos Road Firestation — which are collectively producing more than 4.8 megawatts of renewable energy, allowing for the repurposing of electricity dollars, and displacing coal and nuclear energy from PNM. We appreciate the City’s articulation of the benefits of solar in its announcement on August 31st including local job and economic growth, as well as local control and ownership of the city’s energy options.
For these reasons, it is essential that the City evaluate the feasibility of solarizing the Santa Fe Airport as part of the Santa Fe Municipal Airport Master Plan that is currently being finalized and will be voted on by Council in September. The Master Plan identified approximately $30 million in capital improvement needs at Santa Fe Municipal Airport and articulates short, mid, and long-term development opportunities.
While the Santa Fe Municipal Airport serves as a vital economic asset for the City of Santa Fe and surrounding region I agree that its “development should be carefully and thoughtfully planned and subsequently developed in a manner which matches the development goals of the community” as stated in the Plan’s Executive Summary. At present, the only green feature of the airport planned is LED lighting for the runways. However, the airport represents a huge opportunity to showcase the benefits of solar and our City’s leadership in the renewable energy transition and green economy to thousands of visitors from around the world who will be flying in from above every year – and could have their first impression of our fine City marked by a beautiful array of solar panels covering the parking lot. Further, solarizing the airport will offset some of the carbon footprint of the airport operations.
The plan states that it “provides the tools that the City of Santa Fe will need to meet the challenges of the future.” As we know from the last few week's tragic events – climate change represents one of the gravest challenges of our future and the City must do its part to actively and boldly lead the transition.
The City has experienced the cost-saving and benefits of solar from its installations at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center, the Buckman Direct Diversion Project, the Community Convention Center, the Wastewater Treatment Plant, and its Cerrillos Road Firestation — which are collectively producing more than 4.8 megawatts of renewable energy, allowing for the repurposing of electricity dollars, and displacing coal and nuclear energy from PNM. We appreciate the City’s articulation of the benefits of solar in its announcement on August 31st including local job and economic growth, as well as local control and ownership of the city’s energy options.
For these reasons, it is essential that the City evaluate the feasibility of solarizing the Santa Fe Airport as part of the Santa Fe Municipal Airport Master Plan that is currently being finalized and will be voted on by Council in September. The Master Plan identified approximately $30 million in capital improvement needs at Santa Fe Municipal Airport and articulates short, mid, and long-term development opportunities.
While the Santa Fe Municipal Airport serves as a vital economic asset for the City of Santa Fe and surrounding region I agree that its “development should be carefully and thoughtfully planned and subsequently developed in a manner which matches the development goals of the community” as stated in the Plan’s Executive Summary. At present, the only green feature of the airport planned is LED lighting for the runways. However, the airport represents a huge opportunity to showcase the benefits of solar and our City’s leadership in the renewable energy transition and green economy to thousands of visitors from around the world who will be flying in from above every year – and could have their first impression of our fine City marked by a beautiful array of solar panels covering the parking lot. Further, solarizing the airport will offset some of the carbon footprint of the airport operations.
The plan states that it “provides the tools that the City of Santa Fe will need to meet the challenges of the future.” As we know from the last few week's tragic events – climate change represents one of the gravest challenges of our future and the City must do its part to actively and boldly lead the transition.
Why is this important?
We were excited by the Mayor's interest in solarizing the Airport when we talked about it earlier this year. It's an important opportunity. We were dismayed to see that the Master Plan does not include solarization. We kindly request that solarization be added to the proposed capital improvements outlined in the plan.