LED lights, chemical recycling help make Chicago Rockford International Airport green

ROCKFORD –– What child doesn't like riding past the airport at night, where colorful runway lights look like glowing lines of electric confetti?

Generations of kids, parents and grandparents have memories of airport lights. But not the next generation of lights.

Places such as Chicago Rockford International Airport are switching out incandescent bulbs in favor of LED lights. About a quarter of the more than 3,000 bulbs that guide pilots to two runways and along various taxiways at the airport have been converted.

LEDs do the same job, but last longer and cost less to operate.

"It's about energy savings," said Mike Dunn, airport director. "We consume a lot of energy down here with lighting the field. And LEDs lower the cost significantly."

Airports around the country are trying to lessen their environmental footprint. The Federal Aviation Administration has funded other start-up programs at 40 airports around the country to stimulate sustainability by reducing environmental impacts, maintaining high stable levels of economic growth to help achieve "social progress." The FAA defines social progress as goals that are consistent with the needs and values of the local community.

The FAA has programs to help airports reduce noise and emissions, and urges airports to "take these efforts a step further by fully integrating sustainability into airport planning."

"If money was not an option, I think we'd be doing solar, we'd be doing wind," Dunn said. "But the return on investment is not there right now."

There is a solar farm south of the of the airport. It is a joint venture between New Generation Power and Wanxiang America, which assembles solar panels in a facility east of the airport. The solar farm is being built in three phases. The first phase, which can produce 3 megawatts, went online in 2012. A larger second phase installation will begin this year for the farm, which will ultimately produce 62 megawatts of green energy. 

Power is connected to the grid and sold to Ameren, which like other Illinois electricity utilities, are trying to meet a 2015 goal to have 15 percent of its sales come from renewable sources. By 2025, the threshold is 25 percent, Ameren Illinois spokesperson Leigh Morris said.

The airport considered a solar project to provide green energy for a pond that recycles glycol, a chemical for deicing aircraft.

"We still can't make the number work with solar," said Matt Zinke, the airport's maintenance manager.

Before the pond was built in the mid-1990s, glycol was sprayed on planes and allowed to flow off of runways. Now it's channeled into the ponds, where it is injected with oxygen so it breaks down into byproduct that is not considered a pollutant and can be discharged into the Rock River.

Zinke said running an aeration system for the ponds has also become more sustainable with the installation of oxygen sensors that monitor the ponds and shut aeration off when dissolved oxygen reaches acceptable levels.

The airport will design energy efficiency into its terminal expansion, which will include highly efficient heating and cooling systems and modern lighthing.

"We're always looking for ways," said Zinke.