Funding to build hangars available?

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4RNB

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4RNB
We have solar on our house. Met with our installer today and heard some interesting stuff.

The solar guy has built structures before where the roof of the building and the support structure serves as the racking system for solar. This entire system has tax credits available, perhaps some are better than others (I think commercial scale better than residential). He claims he can build open air hangars that meet all airport and FAA requirements, have the entire cost of the project paid for. Some portion of the rents would need to be paid to financiers, perhaps the airport would get to keep a rental management fee (he does not want to serve in such capacity). One airport he approached has turned him down.

Part of this likely involves an LLC helping to provide some of the funding, the LLC gets the tax credits from the solar project.
The airport gets some of the rent, happy tenants, and likely ownership after 20 years. Might get more fuel if they can draw in more pilots.
Pilots get a plane under cover.
Closing off of the hangar possible after the fact if someone pays for the walls/doors/windows.

He says he can do this out of state also.
I'm not sure what happens with the actual electricity generated, think the airport gets to spin the meter backward, perhaps have some storage if that is incorporated in the design.
My guess is the airport gets a much lower portion of the rent collected compared to normal.

Why wouldn't every airport with waitlists get going on such things?

@RyanB what say you?
 
I’d need more information. I can’t speak to this type of structure itself, or how it’s concocted, but it sounds just like a typical ground lease arrangement. Ground leases don’t provide much benefit to the airport until the term expires. You may get an extra tenant or two who buys fuel, but that’s the reality of it.
4RNB said:
Why wouldn't every airport with waitlists get going on such things?
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Capacity. Not every airport has abundant land lying around ready to be developed. I’m also not sure (without seeing it) that I’d want something unsightly like that at my airport. I can tell you there’s a lot more involved than what is being described here.
 
As for your thread title, and a question I get asked ALL the time - there is virtually no funding available for hangar construction. Public/Private partnerships are really the only way to go anymore, as it sounds this is.
 
RyanB said:
As for your thread title, and a question I get asked ALL the time - there is virtually no funding available for hangar construction. Public/Private partnerships are really the only way to go anymore, as it sounds this is.
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RyanB is correct. Nearly all Federal and State grant programs have exclusions on projects that generate revenue, with a few exceptions here and there. Its hard to finance the construction of a hangar as well, because if the airport charged what it reasonably cost to pay back the loan, they would get accused of being anti-GA.

It honestly sounds like this contractor is wanting to build a solar array to gather the tax credits, but mount it conveniently high enough an airplane could park under it.
 
Well this guy made it sound like he has funding for open air covered airplane storage. He has put solar on my house, my fire department, and on the homes of many people I know.
 
4RNB said:
Well this guy made it sound like he has funding for open air covered airplane storage. He has put solar on my house, my fire department, and on the homes of many people I know.
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If he does, it’s through a private investor group or out of his own coffers. I can just about guarantee it’s not funded through the FAA or even the State’s Aeronautics Department.
 
East coast needs thousands of hangars…where does this guy operate?
 
4RNB said:
Well this guy made it sound like he has funding for open air covered airplane storage. He has put solar on my house, my fire department, and on the homes of many people I know.
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Makes it sound to me like there’s $omething (and likely a lot of it) in it for the contractor.
 
ateamer said:
Makes it sound to me like there’s $omething (and likely a lot of it) in it for the contractor.
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Well that's a guarantee. I haven't met any contractor involved in green energy that was otherwise motivated.
 
4RNB said:
Well this guy made it sound like he has funding for open air covered airplane storage. He has put solar on my house, my fire department, and on the homes of many people I know.
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From experience... Solar installers are on par with used car salesman. 2 of my employees got solar panels and did a 20 year solar loan. Despite me explaining to them how expensive the panels alone are up front. "But everything is free up front". Sigh.
 
It does kind of sound like a good idea though, at least in places where shade hangars are popular. Not too many around here, but I've seen a bunch in Texas. It used to be you could get a 50% subsidy on panels. I get the impression that has dried up though.

Our coop was going to put a bunch up over a retention pond at one of our elevators, but it fell through because some of the subsidies the sales lady promised turned out to be out of date.

Anyway, if the airport was thinking about building shade hangars anyway, this would likely reduce the project cost, eliminate their power bill, and get them some green cred. Beats the hell out of putting them up over prime farm land like they're doing around here.

Might even give the planes special powers like the Bluesmobile.
 
Racerx said:
From experience... Solar installers are on par with used car salesman. 2 of my employees got solar panels and did a 20 year solar loan. Despite me explaining to them how expensive the panels alone are up front. "But everything is free up front". Sigh.
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We've been approached several times by different solar companies. Most of them seem to be snake oil salesmen. Just a little digging on a lot of these companies reveal nothing more than a fancy name, cheap obscure website, and a PO Box. They don't even manufacture or install the systems, they just get you to sign away your rights for all subsidies and incentives in exchange for "cheap" energy, which if you read the fine print and do the math will ultimately not be cheap. What scares me is the number of people that never get past the sales pitch and buy in.
 
midwestpa24 said:
We've been approached several times by different solar companies. Most of them seem to be snake oil salesmen. Just a little digging on a lot of these companies reveal nothing more than a fancy name, cheap obscure website, and a PO Box. They don't even manufacture or install the systems, they just get you to sign away your rights for all subsidies and incentives in exchange for "cheap" energy, which if you read the fine print and do the math will ultimately not be cheap. What scares me is the number of people that never get past the sales pitch and buy in.
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There are some legit ones around. I know several farmers around who have them and are very happy. Some of these guys I would say are smarter and more business savvy than me. Which is a low bar, but still... Not guys who can't do ROI calculations. Part of the secret sauce might be the extraordinary latitude farmers have with their taxes, however. I've been thinking about looking into it now that I own the land around the house and have space to put some in, but again the word on the street is that the really attractive subsidies are all gone now.

By and large though....shysters.
 
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