Photo credit: Saskatoon Airport Authority

With ‘green’ initiatives becoming increasingly more popular, several Saskatoon agencies are starting to utilize solar farms to generate power.

The Saskatoon Airport is the latest entity to hop on board the solar-power train. Vice President of Operations Andrew Leeming says construction is almost complete on a 1-megawatt solar farm that will generate 20 per cent of the power needed to operate the terminal building.

The farm itself is visible in the northeast corner of the airport property, so you can probably see it from the north end of Idylwyld Drive.

Since 2015, the Airport has reduced its carbon footprint 27 per cent, and this $1.9 million project is expected to put them above 40 per cent reductions by 2027.

“It’s looking very promising. With this installation, it should bring us in line with that expectation. We have to have a full year of service, which will be in 2026. This year, we will only get a couple of months before starting into the winter, but we’ll know more as we’re moving into next year.”

Leeming expects the project to start paying for itself within less than 15 years, and the farm has a typical lifespan of 25-30 years.

Other green initiatives the Airport hopes to look deeper into include adopting more electric vehicles.

“This is a trend within the industry. Having solar in place allows us to take those next steps and encourage our partner airlines to bring on that time of electric vehicle support for ground servicing of aircrafts.”

The farm is expected to start generating power by October 2025.