Problems with turbulence at the Wyandotte Airport in Upper Sandusky have raised new concerns about the safety and financial risks associated with installing commercial solar generation near the Knox County Regional Airport.
“On a warm, sunny day with a light east or west breeze, the solar panels create heat and a thermal will flow with the breeze and it'll carry those thermals across the runway,” said Mitchel Grenwalt, a pilot and manager of the Wyandotte Airport. “As an airplane is coming into land and it goes to flare, it will all of a sudden be picked up 30, 40 feet. And then about the time it gets to the end of the solar panels, that extra lift is gone and it drops the plane back down.”
One effect of the turbulence is that very few student pilots fly out of Wyandotte anymore. Grenwalt is a flight instructor and the flight school where he works will not allow students to fly there.
“It's not so much the student's ability,” Grenwalt said. “It is your training aircraft are a lot lighter. The turbulence takes the light plane and tosses it twice as much. It is more dangerous the lighter the aircraft.”
The Knox County Regional Airport has already identified solar glare as a safety problem for the airport if the proposed Frasier Solar industrial facility is built. The Knox County Regional Airport Authority unanimously passed a resolution in April opposing Frasier Solar. The combination of solar glare and turbulence not only presents safety risks but also may negatively affect the financial health of the airport.
“The glare and turbulence risk from large solar fields adjacent to the airport will likely dissuade many student pilots from using our airfield as they learn and advance their skills,” said KCRAA Board Chair Joe Ziegman. “A significant portion of our airport activity is from student pilots – locally trained, as well as from major universities in the region such as Ohio State, Bowling Green, Kent State, and Ohio U. An airfield with extra risks will be a detriment to their training and they will not choose to use this airport for such.”
A reduction in airport activity because of the loss of student pilots would hurt airport revenue, according to Ziegman. This could have a significant impact on plans for future growth.
“The airport is poised for expansion, as we’re the only airfield in the region with a runway large enough to accommodate large business jets and have open land to build hangers for personal or business uses,” said Ziegman. “The negative financial impact in this situation can come from reduced funding for airport infrastructure, some of which is calculated on the number of take offs and landings, or instrument approaches, along with less fuel sales with reduced local and transient pilot activities.”
Grenwalt noted the concerns about solar are primarily related to smaller regional airports.
“I can understand the benefits of solar on the larger airports that are primarily airliners going in and out,” he said. “It's at the small airports where you have a larger general aviation footprint than you have commercial operations that it's a danger they don't want to really talk about. The turbulence is a last minute surprise in a very critical phase of flight.”
The airport is one of many concerns being raised about Fraser Solar. More than 800 residents have shown up to three recent public hearings on the project held by the Ohio Power Siting Board in Mt. Vernon.
One of the attendees, Teresa Peters, pointed out numerous reasons why solar on prime farm ground is a bad idea. Her concerns include the impact on farming, safety for humans and the environment, and the decrease in home values.
“I can go on for plenty more reasons why industrial solar on farm ground is a ridiculous idea,” she said.
