When Christina Cassotis, the managing director of the International Airport Pittsburgh, heard about the power failure that started Heathrow Airport in London last week, she thought of the workers who desperately tried to manage chaos.
But when a failure comes closer at home, she has a more reserved reaction: stay calm and continue.
Your airport has been powered by a mix of natural gas generators on site and solar collectors for almost four years. The airport estimates that the independent system, which is known as microgrid, saves it about $ 1 million a year for its energy costs and has enabled it to use the electrical network as a backup, said Ms. Cassotis.
“We did it because we wanted resistance and redundancy,” she said. “Airports are a critical transport infrastructure. We should be able to do no matter what happens.”
This energy independence is rare, especially for larger airports.
Many airports have backup generators that help you maintain critical functions such as air traffic control and lighting in the event of power outages. However, these standard emergency measures have restrictions. You may have to refuel if, for example, a failure takes many hours or days. For this reason, most airports are heavily dependent on external power to keep passengers and planes in motion.
However, US airports are increasingly experimenting with the production and storage of electricity on site -usually with solar energy and batteries -in order to contain carbon emissions, to prepare for future electricity needs and to manage increasing disorders caused by climate change and aging infrastructure.
The International Airport Denver has However, several connections to the grid, in which one fails, recently also uses a solar -operated battery storage system to keep the underground trains in an emergency. At the New York International Airport in Kennedy, an overhaul of 19 billion US dollars contains the plans to install thousands of solar collectors and batteries in order to lower emissions and keep its new terminal 1, which is expected to open in 2026. This is carried out in the event of failures that can be very annoying and expensive for airports and everyone who rely on them.
“If you have reliable and effective airport, you will contribute to the support of economic resilience,” said Joey Cathcart, a sustainable aviation expert at RMI, a non -profit sustainability in Colorado, which is previously known as Rocky Mountain Institute. He and his colleagues have contributed to developing a state -funded guideline for airports that is interested in microgrids such as those in Pittsburgh.
Power failures at airports are more common than many civil servants. In a report on accountability of 2023, 321 failures were determined, which lasted at least five minutes at two dozen US airports from 2015 to 2022. Airports and other infrastructures, such as The number of storms and other weather events, which has increased from five to 27 years from five to 27 a.m. in the past few decades in the past few decades, has increased steadily, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information, part of the US trade department.
At the end of 2017, an electric fire caused a power failure at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which bothered flights nationwide and Delta Air Lines, the largest airline at the airport, $ 10 million. These and other failures prompted Mrs. Cassotis to ask her team to deal with microgrids.
“Basically, we only started the examination process,” she said. “Can we have one at all?”
The airport, which is located on the natural gas deposit of Marcellus Shale, requested suggestions for designing, building and operation of a microgrid without ahead for the airport. The microgrid was in operation until July 2021. Today it produces 23 megawatts of energy: three from a solar system on an old landfill and the rest of five natural gas generators. When asked maximum demand, the airport, which served almost 10 million passengers last year, only uses about 14 megawatts and sells the excess on the network.
The establishment of the microgrid, which belongs to two energy companies, has already paid off for the airport, which has been locked up for years of low electricity rates and has reduced carbon emissions per year by more than six million pounds a year, said Ms. Cassotis.
It also spared the airport of disorders. Heathrow's closure on March 21st disturbed the global journey, which led to more than 1,000 canceled flights and thousands of passengers. According to Ms. Cassotis, it started with a fire in an electric substation and weeks earlier. Fires near substances had disturbed some of the performance feed to the airport. The airport separated these feeds to prevent problems from spreading to its microgrid and continued to work as usual.
“There is an actual tangible value in the stored dollars,” said Ms. Cassotis. “And then there is peace.”
Resilience is not the only reason why airports want to generate and store electricity on site.
Aviation accounts for 2 to 3 percent of global emissions and is to decarbonize a particularly difficult industry, as there are only a few emission-free alternatives for jet fuel. The establishment of solar modules, such as the thousands that Denver Airport has already installed or which come to JFK, can help reduce the CO2 footprint of an airport. You can also help supplement the increasing energy requirement, as airport vehicles, shuttles, rental cars and finally small planes shift to battery stream.
The Airport from Denver is served by two committed electric substations, each of which can supply the entire facility with electricity, and, according to Scott Morrissey, Senior Vice President Sustainability at the airport, delivers a redundancy. The airport also has backup generators.
“As soon as we have all of these sources, we would like to make sure that this power supply is as reliable and resilient as it can be,” he said.
The port authority of New York and New Jersey, the JFK and the other two major airports that are monitored in the New York region also combine sustainability with resilience. In Kennedy, which also has redundant power sources and generators, Terminal 1 includes a massive series of solar modules, fuel cells and batteries on the roof.
“From the point of view of business continuity, it is obviously very advantageous to have to deal with this disorder,” said Jessica Forse, the senior project manager, who monitors a broader overhaul of the airport, to which the terminalrevamp belongs. “In a large international airport – Heathrow, JFK – these disorders can be seen everywhere. They are curling in Germany and internationally throughout the air.”
Such ambitious projects are currently limited, but interest rates are increasing. The Federal Aviation Administration has granted airports to explore such options. Airport officers also have advice from Ms. Cassotis and others who were used early in taking solar collectors and microgrid.
“Since this market has developed over time, there are a number of options that should work for different types and sizes of airports,” said Lauren Shwisberg, who heads research and projects to switch to less carbon -intensive electricity at RMI.