The Indianapolis International Airport will not receive a $6.7 million grant for renewable energy infrastructure work that was committed to the airport more than two years ago by the federal government, officials said Tuesday.
The Federal Aviation Administration plans to terminate the grant, which was earmarked to the Indianapolis Airport Authority to support the airport’s north airfield electrical vault and provide maintenance and improvements for safe operations, because “it does not align with the administration’s priorities,” U.S. Rep. André Carson, D-Indiana, said in a written statement.
The FAA awarded the Indianapolis Airport Authority a $22.58 million grant in 2023 to support its massive solar farm, which has 87,478 solar panels across 183 acres. The $6.7 million allotment is a slice of that total.
Indianapolis Airport Authority spokeswoman Stephanie McFarland confirmed that the airport no longer anticipated receiving the funds, but said the impact would be minimal.
“The Indianapolis Airport Authority did not receive the dollars associated with this project and had not begun nominal work on it yet,” McFarland wrote. “We remain in good financial stability, and, with this news, we are adjusting our priorities for critical infrastructure projects.”
McFarland added that the IAA will continue to work with the federal leaders and elected officials, including Carson, on future funding opportunities as they become available.
The IAA touts a commitment to environmental sustainability. In 2015, then-Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard gave the airport’s solar farm, the largest of any airport in the word at the time, an “Indianapolis Sustainability Award.”
Ballard, a Republican who established the city’s Office of Sustainability, did not respond to a call from IBJ seeking comment on the fund’s cancellation.
The airport’s isn’t the only solar project affected by Trump administration cuts. Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency abruptly cut off nearly $130 million in federal funding for solar projects in Indiana, which solar proponents called a “devastating blow.”
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