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The Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport landed a sizable energy bill savings, courtesy of a renovation project.
The airport, which goes by the call letters SRQ, cut its power bill from about $1 million a year to around $600,000 through two major switches: It now uses LED lights in the main terminal and runways, and it upgraded its air-conditioning systems. For an airport with an annual budget of around $21 million that's been hit hard by airline consolidation, a 40% cut in any bill is a big deal. “It's a considerable savings for us,” SRQ President and CEO Rick Piccolo tells Coffee Talk.
The shift on the lights is a common upgrade for many large buildings, and is part of a multimillion-dollar renovation and modernization project inside SRQ's 25-year-old terminal. The work includes a new roof, escalators and restrooms.
But the air-conditioning side of the project is a more radical transformation, with the airport going from old chiller systems that required oil to new magnetic bearing compressor chillers. Piccolo says the new AC system, which cost the airport around $500,000, was recently installed at the Hillsborough County Jail. The airport bought the system at a discount, he adds, because it worked with the vendor on an early-adapter to the new technology price plan.
“In the old way the oil had to be changed regularly,” says Piccolo. “But this way is environmentally friendly and financially friendly.”
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