SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) - Planning to fly from the Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport this fall? You'll see a field of solar panels in the Northern Quadrant. 

The field will hold 7.5 acres of solar panels and provide four million kWh of renewable energy each year. 

"We've been trying to find a way to put the idle property to use to generate revenue, to have some meaningful life for the airport and its tenets," said Mark Hanna, the Executive Director of the Springfield Airport Authority.

One of those tenants is StandardAero, a company providing maintenance and repairs to the aircraft at the airport. 

"We're expecting when this is really up and fully operational, we will be 100% utilizing the solar farm to take our 200,000-square-feet of power needs and meet them," said Tony Brancato, President of StandardAero Business Aviation. 

Instead of using a typical source for electricity, StandardAero will pay the airport to use the power pulled from the solar panels. This will help them cut costs and reach their goal of reducing their carbon footprint. 

The airport says, "This project is expected to lower greenhouse gas emissions at a value equivalent to over 7 million vehicle miles driven or 7,5000 barrels of oil consumed each year."

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