Port Authority launches solar expansion at Newark Liberty International Airport

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced plans May 11 to expand solar energy infrastructure at Newark Liberty International Airport.

This expansion is intended to add about five megawatts of generating capacity across five airport sites and produce nearly 5.9 million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity in its first year of operation.

The project is part of the Port Authority’s initiative to attain sustainability goals. In 2021, the agency installed 1.6 megawatts of solar capacity across its facilities. Because of the investments at its facilities across the region, the agency’s solar power generation capacity has grown to more than 14 megawatts, with more than 25,000 solar panels generating clean energy.

The Newark Liberty expansion will mark a nearly tenfold increase in solar energy capacity over five years, reaching nearly 20 megawatts in generating capacity across 32,000 panels.

Developed in partnership with New York City-based SunLight General Capital under a power purchase agreement, the project will be designed, built, financed, owned, operated, and maintained by the developer. The Port Authority will purchase the electricity generated at a pre-determined rate, locking in long-term cost certainty while minimizing upfront capital expenditure. Construction is expected to begin this year, with completion targeted for 2028.

The Newark Liberty solar expansion adds to the Port Authority’s rapidly growing renewable energy portfolio at its facilities as part of its commitment to reach net-zero by 2050, as well as an interim goal of halving direct emissions by 2030. The agency recently announced it had preliminarily met its interim goal of a 35% reduction in direct emissions through 2025.

“Newark Liberty has been central to our sustainability story for years, home to the largest rooftop solar installation at any U.S. airport and the agency’s first fully decarbonized building,” said Port Authority Chairman Kevin O’Toole. “Today we’re adding to that record with five megawatts of new solar capacity across five more sites, moving this airport and this agency even closer to net-zero emissions.”

The five sites for new solar installations at Newark Liberty will span rooftops, parking lots and parking structures, including the parking lot in front of Buildings 79/80 at the northeast corner of the airport campus, the Terminal C garage, the P4 parking garage, and the rideshare lot. The rideshare lot installation is specifically sized to power fast-charging electric vehicle stations.

The Port Authority selected SunLight General Capital through a competitive bidding process in 2024. Under the power purchase agreement, SunLight will build, own and maintain the solar installation sites, while the Port Authority purchases the electricity they produce at a locked-in rate. This model allows the agency to add significant clean energy capacity without a large upfront public investment.

“Expanding solar across Newark Liberty International Airport is a powerful example of how clean energy can be integrated into complex, high-impact infrastructure,” said SunLight General Capital Chief Investment Officer Ed Klehe.

At Newark Liberty, the Terminal A parking garage already houses a five-megawatt rooftop solar array, the largest rooftop solar installation at any U.S. airport, with 12,708 panels covering the equivalent of more than six football fields. The airport’s historic Building One, dedicated in 1935 as the nation’s first air passenger terminal, recently became the Port Authority’s first building to undergo a full decarbonization retrofit.

Solar is one pillar of the sustainability agenda that the Port Authority has pursued across its facilities. On fleet electrification, the agency has met its interim goal of converting 50% of its non-emergency light-duty vehicle fleet to electric, supported by more than 300 charging ports across Port Authority facilities.

More than 1,700 pieces of zero-emission ground service equipment like baggage tugs, pushback tractors and belt loaders are now in use across Port Authority airports, the result of sustainability requirements the agency has embedded in its agreements with airline and terminal partners.

In 2024, the Port Authority received a record grant through the EPA’s Clean Ports Program, the largest sustainability award in the agency’s history, directing funds toward cleaner equipment and infrastructure at the East Coast’s busiest seaport.