Airport Solar + Storage Case Study | Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, Puerto Rico
How Aerostar Puerto Rico deployed a $14 million commercial solar energy storage system, powered by Fortress Power eSpire, to reduce emissions, stabilize the grid, and advance Puerto Rico’s most-traveled airport toward a net-zero future.
Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico (Isla Verde)
Clients: Aerostar Puerto Rico — Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (SJU)
System Size: 560 kWh
System Components: 2x Fortress Power eSpire 280 + 2 MW DC Solar Array
Annual Clean Energy Production: 2,940 MWh
Annual CO₂ Reduction: 2,130 metric tons
The Need
Airports operate around the clock without pause. Passenger terminals, security systems, communications infrastructure, baggage handling, and operational support facilities all draw continuous power, and at Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, the region’s busiest airport and Puerto Rico’s primary gateway to the world, that energy demand adds up fast. Aerostar, the airport’s operator, pays over $1 million monthly for electricity consumption.
Beyond cost, Puerto Rico’s energy landscape presents unique challenges. The island’s grid has faced well-documented reliability issues, and for a critical infrastructure facility like an international airport, dependence on an unstable utility grid is an operational and reputational risk. At the same time, Aerostar had committed to an ambitious long-term sustainability roadmap, a Sustainability Master Plan with a goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The airport needed a commercial solar energy storage solution that could do three things simultaneously: reduce energy costs at scale, improve grid resilience and power quality, and demonstrate meaningful progress toward its environmental commitments. Solar alone wasn’t enough. To truly maximize the value of renewable generation, and to stabilize the airport’s internal electrical network, battery energy storage was essential.
The Solution
Aerostar partnered with Skysense, a Mexico-based energy and microgrid solutions provider, to design and deliver the project, with Fortress Power supplying the commercial battery energy storage systems at its core.
The project integrates 4,000 high-efficiency photovoltaic solar panels installed atop a carport structure spanning approximately 113,200 square feet in the airport’s multi-story parking facility. The system supplements the airport’s primary energy supply and delivers clean power directly to passenger-facing areas in Terminal A and other critical operational zones.
To store and manage that generation, the project incorporated two Fortress Power eSpire 280 battery energy storage systems, 280 kWh each, for a combined 560 kWh of commercial storage capacity. The eSpire systems are purpose-built for demanding commercial and industrial environments, providing the intelligence and scalability needed to stabilize an internal electrical network of this scale.
The eSpire systems work in concert with the solar array to stabilize the airport’s internal electrical grid, improve power quality, and enable more efficient integration of renewable energy into daily operations. Rather than letting excess solar generation go unused or sending it back to a strained utility grid, the battery systems store it and deploy it intelligently, smoothing out fluctuations, supporting peak demand periods, and maintaining consistent power quality across the facility.
The system was also engineered for the realities of Puerto Rico’s coastal environment. It was designed to meet rigorous engineering standards for hurricane-force wind loads and complies with the Puerto Rico Building Code, the International Building Code (IBC), and applicable wind load requirements, built for high-exposure coastal conditions. The solar carport structure itself was designed for an operational lifespan of 50 to 60 years, with the panels carrying an estimated useful life of 25 to 30 years.
Results
The numbers at Luis Muñoz Marín reflect the scale of what a well-designed commercial solar-plus-storage system can deliver for large infrastructure facilities.
The system generates an average of 245,000 kWh of clean energy monthly, with annual production reaching approximately 2,940 MWh, enough to prevent more than 2,100 metric tons of CO₂ emissions each year, the environmental equivalent of planting 100,000 trees.
The Fortress Power eSpire battery systems deliver an equally important but less visible benefit: stable, high-quality power for the airport’s internal grid. By buffering the variability inherent in solar generation and supporting the facility during periods of peak demand or grid stress, the eSpire platform helps ensure that operations at one of the Caribbean’s busiest airports remain uninterrupted, regardless of what’s happening on the utility grid outside the fence line.
Infrastructure-Scale Energy Storage, Built to Last
The Luis Muñoz Marín Airport project is one of the most significant commercial solar energy storage deployments in the Caribbean, and a clear demonstration of what’s possible when large-scale solar generation is paired with the right battery technology. For airports, municipalities, and other critical infrastructure operators, the results speak for themselves: lower long-term operating costs, improved power quality, measurable emissions reductions, and the resilience to keep essential operations running regardless of what’s happening on the utility grid.
As Aerostar continues toward its 2050 net-zero goal, the Fortress Power eSpire platform provides the foundation to get there — and a proven model for large-scale facilities ready to make the same commitment.
Ready to explore what a commercial solar + storage system could do for your facility? Start a C&I Project Quote.
