Dominion Energy breaks ground Aug. 22 on what will be the largest energy project ever developed at a U.S. airport.

In partnership with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, Dominion Energy will convert a large area of unused land at Dulles International Airport to collect and store solar energy. It will eventually include tens of thousands of solar panels on 835 acres of grounds at Dulles Airport. The project will feed the airport’s energy needs, as well as Dominion’s Northern Virginia power grid.

Dominion will also build and maintain a 2-megawatt solar carport, and provide the Airports Authority electric buses, light-duty electric vehicles and charging infrastructure for those vehicles.

The Airports Authority previously had no plan for development of the land.

Dominion and the Airports Authority began talks about a renewable energy project at Dulles Airport in 2018. The two reached an agreement on a 37-year lease for the land in September 2021.

Among officials at next week’s groundbreaking will be Bob Blue, president of Dominion Energy, Jack Potter, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, and U.S. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia.

It will be one of many renewable energy projects Dominion has completed, is in the process of developing or plans to develop in the future, as part of its goal to comply with the Virginia Clean Economy Act, passed in 2020, which requires that Dominion be 100% carbon free by 2045.