Denver International Airport

As a supporting sponsor, Denver International Airport (DEN) applauds the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2017 student competitors. Today's solar decathletes are the future leaders of the environmental sustainability principles to which DEN is committed.

With an anticipated 60 million plus passengers in 2017 and 189 destinations in 11 countries, DEN is the sixth-busiest airport in the U.S. DEN, with its long-held commitment to environmental stewardship, is also one of the highest solar-generating airports in the United States.

DEN's iconic tented Jeppesen Terminal was designed with sustainability in mind. The structure allows for daylight to enter, greatly decreasing the amount of energy needed to light the interior.

DEN's commitment to the environment doesn’t stop with its initial design. The airport is quick to adopt new processes and technologies that can increase its energy efficiency. Control technology is anticipated to decrease the airport's heating and cooling by 8 million kilowatt hours (kWh) per year. In addition, DEN's lighting retrofit projects—which replace outdated lighting technology with new, energy-efficient LED technology—have saved more than 8.3 million kWh annually.

On DEN's expansive 53-square miles of real estate, we have five photovoltaic solar arrays designed to produce more than 19.5 million kWh of energy a year. That's enough to power 2,600 Denver-area homes. DEN is excited and proud to host Solar Decathlon 2017 on a site where we are partnering with Xcel Energy and Panasonic on a 1.6 megawatt solar photovoltaic installation covering the parking lot, which along with Panasonic’s rooftop solar array, will power a battery system that will support a microgrid for the Peña Station NEXT Transit-Oriented Development site.

To create additional excitement for Solar Decathlon 2017, DEN is hosting a Sustainable BARKitecture Dog House competition, which challenges local architecture firms to compete in designing a solar dog house customized to one of the airport’s own Canine Airport Therapy Squad (CATS) dogs.