• Exclusive Content
  • Events
  • Endeavor Business Media Energy
    1. Distributed Energy

    Congress plans funding for $4.7M Microgrid at Ohio Airport

    Dec. 13, 2021
    Springfield-Beckley is owned by the city of Springfield, Ohio but also utilizes its connection to the military as a base for Ohio Air National Guard units
    Photo courtesy Wikipedia
    800px Springfield Beckley Airport Tower 61b77288d7edb

    By Rod Walton, EnergyTech Senior Editor

    A small portion of the $768 billion defense spending act passed by the U.S. House earlier this month is targeted at developing a base-wide microgrid at the military-civil Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport in Ohio.

    The appropriation targets $4.7 million for base-wide microgrid, which can include on-site power generators, solar power, energy storage and integrative controls. Springfield-Beckley is owned by the city of Springfield but also utilizes its connection to the military as a base for Ohio Air National Guard units.

    The airport has been awarded numerous federal grants helping fund runway rehabilitation and other infrastructural improvements. Some funding is allocated toward construction of the National Advanced Air Mobility Center of Excellence.

    Our Tuesday Webinar is focused on how universities & health care research use energy efficiency, microgrids

    Registration is free and session is live and on demand

    Some other federal grants will fund lighting improvement and purchase of a zero-emission on-road airport veh8icle, according to news reports.

    Recent military microgrid projects include work at Maxwell AFB, Fort Sill Army Base, Fort Hood Army Base, West Point Military Academy and Vandenburg AFB, among numerous others.

    The microgrid market is expected to grow almost 13 percent annually to $19.5 billion market revenue by 2025, according to Technavio.

    -- -- -- 

    (Rod Walton, senior editor for EnergyTech, is a 14-year veteran of covering the energy industry both as a newspaper and trade journalist. He can reached at [email protected]).

    About the Author

    Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Senior Editor

    For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

    Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

    He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.

    Email