Berlin’s new Brandenburg International Airport to host world's first carbon-neutral filling station
Computer simulation of new terminal at Berlin Brandenburg International (graphic: Björn Rolle/Berlin Airports)
Tue 20 Apr 2010 – A public filling station is to be constructed at the future Berlin Brandenburg International Airport (BBI) that is claimed will be the world’s first CO2-neutral filling station. This is to be achieved through the building of a wind farm in the vicinity of the airport site, which will provide emissions-free power supply for the station itself and hydrogen fuel for vehicles, as well as generate enough power to offset the indirect CO2 emissions of conventional fuels sold at the station. The project is an initiative of Berlin Airports, ENERTRAG and TOTAL, and the station is expected to enter service in October 2011, coinciding with the planned start of operations at BBI.
Construction of the wind farm, to be built by ENERTRAG, is planned to start in June 2011 and will comprise 40 wind turbines with an annual output of 200 GW/h. Wind power that is not used to supply the filling station with electricity or for producing hydrogen will be fed into the public grid.
“Approximately 170,000 tonnes of CO2 a year will be prevented through our wind farm,” said Werner Diwald of ENERTRAG. “That will more than offset the 40,000 to 50,000 tonnes of CO2 that arise from the combustion of conventional fuel sold at the filling station.”
The gaseous hydrogen will be produced using an electrolyser supplied with power from the wind farm.
“We will be offering a broad range of environmentally-friendly fuels: from wind-hydrogen to charging stations for electric cars, to petrol and diesel with a bio component,” said Hans-Christian Gützkow, Managing Director of TOTAL Deutschland. “Furthermore, with our partner EWE, we shall be selling natural gas that contains a biogas component. The combination comprising the production of renewable energies and a conventional filling station with alternative fuels and intelligent heating systems will make this filling station unique in the world.”
By the end of 2011, Berlin’s previously three airports will become one – Berlin Brandenburg International – to be situated on the expanded site of Schönefeld, south-east of the city. Tempelhof has already been closed and Tegel will also close when BBI becomes operational.
Operating authority Berlin Airports says the concentration of Berlin’s air traffic at just one site “presents a positive overall ecological impact in terms of land usage as well as noise pollution and traffic load.” It claims the closure of the existing airports at Tegel and Schönefeld, and a new energy-efficient terminal building at BBI, as well as the conversion of the power generation system using renewable energy, will result in a 48% overall reduction of infrastructure CO2 emissions of 74,600 tonnes a year in 2007 to 38,700 tonnes per year.
“Energy efficiency and sustainability are the environmental policy objectives that Berlin Airports is pursuing when building the new BBI,” said Berlin Airports CEO Professor Rainer Schwarz. “The realization of the wind-hydrogen project is an important building block for achieving these goals.”
When BBI enters service, the authority is planning to introduce an ecological fleet management policy both airside and landside for its own vehicles, and intends to use alternative drive systems that will possibly include a combination of E-Gas and hydrogen technology.
