Effort has been truly industry-wide this week, with praise due across the board from engine manufacturers to airports for their improvements in regards to their environmental performance.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) has been named the Air Navigation Services Provider of the Year by the Centre of Asia Pacific Aviation. CAAS has been recognised for its achievements in operational efficiencies that improve fuel efficiency thus reducing costs and emissions, such as the improved management and shortening of routes.
DFW International Airport in Texas has also been reducing emissions and has been recognised by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its efforts. The airport was recently pushed up to number 11 in the EPA’s top 20 Local Government List of the largest green power purchasers. The airport purchases nearly 53 million kWh of green power per year, which is enough to meet 18% of the organization’s purchased electricity use. According to the EPA, this is equivalent to avoiding the CO2 emissions of nearly 7,000 passenger vehicles per year, or is the equivalent amount of electricity needed to power more than 5,000 average American homes annually.
Frankfurt Airport looks set to make improvements in this area as well. A project has been launched to look into the potential of the Walldorf deep-earth geothermal field as resource for renewable energy. If all goes well, the partners will construct a hybrid power plant, which will use geothermal power and biogas to produce electricity and heat which will then be used to supply Frankfurt Airport with renewable energy, so fingers crossed!
And finally, Rolls Royce won a contract this week with Virgin Atlantic to power ten of the carriers’ aircraft with its state of the art Trent 700 engines. Six of the aircraft that are to be supplied are Airbus model A330’s, which will feature an enhanced performance version of the Trent 700… and what does that mean? These enhanced Trent 700’s improve engine fuel burn by a further 1.3% over the regular models, helping Virgin Atlantic’s to pursue its mission to fly a modern fleet with the most fuel efficient technology available.
In other news, the Doha Aviation Summit2009 this week brought together internationally recognised associations, civil aviation authorities, ministries of aviation, airports, airlines and leading service providers to discuss various current issues the industry is facing. Much time was dedicated to the industry’s action on tackling environmental issues, with input in particular from Christohpe Cros from Airbus, who offered advice to the aviation market on new technology that lowers emissions and works towards a carbon neutral aviation industry. The conference suitably concluded with a 'Green Aviation' day where panelists discussed the carbon free future of aviation providing different perspective on development and deployment of new technologies, efficient usage of infrastructure, progress and utilisation of alternative fuels and the role of the government and institutional bodies in ensuring the carbon neutral growth.
Plane Talking
Green routes, green energy, green engines and a 'green aviation' day.
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It is encouraging to know that across the aviation industry, something is being done to contain the amount of environmental impact in many spheres. We need active support from every single industry in this regard to effectively manage the environment issue. This is definitely an encouraging start. At the Climatarians directory, we bring people interested in environmental issues together in order to make a positive impact on our environment.