New JFK International Terminal Aims To Be 50% Powered By Roof Solar Array

Developers of the new international terminal at New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) are planning to use solar power to meet 50% of the building's daily energy requirements.

Construction on a large solar array on the new terminal's roof kick off Sept. 24.

The array will include 13,000 solar panels spanning more than 2,100 ft. Led by global airport developer and operator Ferrovial, a private consortium called New Terminal One (NTO) is financing the cost of the facility privately and overseeing construction, which began in 2022. With cost for the first phase at $9 billion, it is the most expensive element of JFK’s sweeping $19 billion overhaul and will be the airport’s largest terminal. NTO anticipates around 30 international carriers serving the terminal, with Air France and LOT Polish Airlines among those to have already signed on.

The new terminal is set to open in mid-2026. 

“The 6.63 megawatts of solar array on the terminal’s roof is part of a 12-megawatt microgrid that will distribute electric energy from solar, fuel cells and batteries through a localized and self-contained energy system that can operate independently from or connected to the main power grid,” NTO and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in a statement.

NTO is building and managing the new international terminal under a lease with the Port running to 2060. NTO and the Port said its rooftop system will be the “largest such solar array at any U.S. airport.”

Massachusetts-based microgrid integrator AlphaStruxure will oversee building and management of the system. AlphaStructure says on its website that it “owns its clients’ systems for the entire lifecycle, making the company accountable to long-term guarantees on pricing and performance.”

The company is a joint venture of Schneider Electric and the investment firm Carlyle.

In a briefing with reporters, NTO CEO Jennifer Aument said, “To have the ability to power up to 50% of our operations [with solar energy] goes a long way in sustainability, but also we think about resiliency of this critical infrastructure.”

“We deliver power into the airport distribution system,” AlphaStruxure CEO Juan Marcias said. “We have capacity to supply up to 50% of the load of the terminal ... We're also capturing waste heat and delivering chilled water and hot water in order to optimize efficiency of the system.”

Aument said she anticipates that “when operations [start], we will use the [solar energy] to power 50% of our operating terminal, and it will be core to our daily operations.”

Marcias said AlphaStructure has “a service level agreement to provide that amount of capacity to terminal operations. So we have a commitment to do that. And, of course, the Port Authority and the utilities supply the balance of the [energy] capacity to the terminal.”