January/February 2024 - 29

CONSULTANT CORNER
The Airport
Decarbonization
Calculator
accounts for
growth along with
investment needs
at an airport.
C&S COMPANIES
If you're like a medium hub airport
and then through 2020 through 2050,
your forecasted growth rate for your
airport is 2% a year, what does that
mean for your emissions? If you grow
your emissions at 2% a year by 2050,
you're almost doubling your emissions
profile by that time. And so that alone
helps to communicate the importance
of putting in measures because if you're
growing and not seeking to mitigate the
impact of that growth, you're not moving
towards net zero, you're moving in the
other direction. That tool helps airports
understand what their baseline and what
their business-as-usual trajectory looks
like. It allows them to play around with
different technological and policy scenarios,
so they can use these dials and gauges
on the calculator to say, " what does our
curve look like if we say, implement
zero-emissions vehicles or equipment
or adopt a very high energy efficiency
standard in our terminals. " They play
around with these dials, they can kind
of see what the impact of those actions is
on their ability to achieve net-zero.
AB: What are some of the key inputs
and metrics you use to establish the
business-as-usual trajectory for airports?
CJ: The business-as-usual trajectory
is based fundamentally on their baseline.
Where are they starting in terms of their
emissions? Some airports have that data
and if they do, they can enter it into the
calculator and the model will accept that.
If they don't have it, we've gone ahead
and estimated it based on the airport size,
whether they're GA, small hub, non-hub,
etc. One of the best proxies for future
emissions growth is the overall growth
of the airport. If we assume their current
emissions intensity is going to apply with
future development and future expansion
of the airport, that activity growth
rate, we apply that to the emissions
moving forward.
AB: What are some of the specific solutions
that are proposed for overcoming
infrastructure challenges in terms of
repurposing or upgrading any of the
energy and energy infrastructure for
airports?
IS: The level of investment that's
going to be required in energy infrastructure,
I think most people probably
haven't begun to comprehend the scale
of that challenge. There's going to be a
tremendous need to think about energy
infrastructure and invest significantly
over the coming decades. I think one
of the specific solutions we're seeing is
airports taking a real interest in how they
can control more of their energy supply.
You can see that manifesting in some
cases in greater focus on onsite generation.
There are examples out there like what
Pittsburgh has done, or another one that's
currently under construction is a project
at JFK to develop what will be the largest
airport microgrid in the country when
it's completed. It's another example of
airports taking a more active or proactive
role in developing that energy infrastructure
within their bounds and their
control, recognizing that the overall grid
and national infrastructure are going to
be strained significantly.
AB: How does the program address the
financial challenges airports could face
addressing net-zero, especially when it
comes to prioritizing safety and security
and other infrastructure projects?
IS: Capital planning is always going to
be a critical piece of airport planning and
development. There are a couple of things
to consider here. Are there potential grant
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 \ AVIATIONPROS.COM / 29
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January/February 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January/February 2024
