MIA Set To Save Lots Of Green With New Project
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Miami International Airport is rolling out a new program meant to save some serious energy, cash and keep us cool.
Airport and Florida Power and Light officials announced details about The Sustainability Project on Tuesday morning.
With Florida's steamy weather, electricity and water consumption can go through the roof with the airport paying more than $32 million dollars a year just for power.
As part of the project, within the next two years, workers will install air conditioning and ventilation upgrades, water conservation retrofits for toilets and sinks, energy-efficient lighting, among other energy-saving items at the airport.
"My favorite part of this is my workers won't need to change light bulbs for many, many years. My workers can be redeployed to other areas of the airport and utilized," said Asst. Director of Facilities Management Carlos Jose.
The biggest change is this massive air conditioning cooling system.The humidity is taken out of the water that then travels to a massive chiller. Once it's out, the water is about ten degrees cooler than it was before. It's then sent back through the terminal to cool the air conditioning units all over the airport. The process is repeated over and over again.
Airport officials said the project would save them more than $40 million in utility costs over the next 14 years.
The project will also help drastically reduce the annual carbon emissions at the airport equivalent to 5,110 cars.
As for water conservation, the airport's annual water consumption is expected to drop by 28 million gallons. That's enough to fill 43 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
When it comes to jobs, the project is expected to employ 300 people during the installation phase.
The Sustainability Project is projected to save MIA $2.2 million annually. The project is considered one of the largest energy-saving programs ever in the state of Florida and in the Eastern U.S.
