Why Airports Turn to Microgrids for Sustainability

How can airports achieve their goals of carbon neutrality and net zero by 2050? A top solution is by integrating microgrids into their green energy plan. Microgrids are being lauded as a smart choice for airports’ low-carbon efforts because of their versatility – increasing sustainability and resiliency, and bringing cost savings. 

Microgrids are self-contained electrical networks that give airports the ability to manage their own on-site power with the control to use it when, and how, they want. They can integrate renewable energy, like wind and solar, and can manage and optimize that renewable energy’s use with features such as on-site storage, like batteries and fuel cells, that can store energy from on-site generation that would otherwise be wasted.  This move to greener electricity is important because airports are huge energy users – large airports’ daily electricity and thermal energy use compares to that of a city of 100,000 people.