The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on behalf of the Colorado Department of Transportation’s (CDOT’s) Division of Aeronautics, has published a study to assess the likely infrastructure requirements for local and regional airports related to the Colorado aviation market to support electrified fixed-wing aircraft.
“In the study discussed in this report, researchers identified the current state of advanced aircraft development and the industry, as well as challenges that aircraft manufacturers face in electrifying aircraft,” said the executive summary of the report. “Based on the current state of industry, follow-on analysis reviews the necessary infrastructure required to enable modern modes of aerial mobility. Potential benefits of electrified aircraft for owners, operators, and surrounding communities include lower life cycle costs, shorter runway takeoff requirements, and less noise and local pollutants. Additionally, the energy assets and infrastructure required for electric aircraft operations could potentially allow airports to serve as energy resilience hubs during outage events.”
The study looked at the impact of implementing charging systems at 40 regional airports in the state.
According to the conclusions:
“When upstream capital costs were considered at higher use airports in the study, distributed energy resources (DER) assets became more financially viable….The cost effectiveness of DER assets was significant when considering combined peak loads of both flight school and RAM charging loads.
“Smaller airports focused on flight training could see even more drastic changes to existing energy needs if a flight school were to electrify. With minimal existing electrical loads, rural airports must first confirm on-site availability of three-phase power, and this study’s assumption of spare feeder capacity and the estimated cost for reconductoring might be overand underestimated, respectively. If the smaller airports in the study have severe restrictions on the existing distribution infrastructure, it could support the use of on-site DER assets for electrifying aircraft flight beyond the amounts found economic in this study.”
For more information
https://docs.nrel.gov/docs/fy25osti/91144.pdf