Stavanger Airport to build bio-energy power plant to supply terminals with climate neutral heating
Stavanger Airport, Sola (photo: Avinor)
Thu 18 Jun 2009 – Fast-growing Stavanger Airport Sola, in Norway is to build a new power plant that will supply climate neutral heating to the buildings, including the passenger and helicopter terminals, and also to a new hotel under construction. The 4GWh power plant will use wood chippings sourced from local forest areas and help the airport reduce its annual CO2 emissions by 2,000 tonnes. Avinor, the operator of Stavanger Airport, has announced that three other Norwegian airports – Oslo, Trondheim and Alesund – have applied to join ACI EUROPE’s new Airport Carbon Accreditation scheme.
Stavanger’s new power plant will commence operations by this coming winter and the heating network will supply 55,000 square metres of Avinor-owned buildings.
Environmentally-friendly solutions were an important precondition for Avinor in the project. “The environmental weighting was a huge 35% in the assessment of which suppliers and the type of energy source we would use for the power plant. The wood chippings we chose for heating the airport will, for example, be supplied by local forest areas in Rogaland,” said Morten Wathne, the airport’s Planning and Construction Manager.
The strong growth in traffic at the airport has led to a large investment in upgrading the runway system and also upgrading and extending the passenger terminal. The airport says it has focused strongly on the environment in its study and decision processes and its objective is more environmentally-conscious solutions both in terms of aircraft and day-to-day airport operations.
Announcing Avinor’s application for Oslo Gardermoen, Trodnheim Værnes and Ålesund Vigra airports to become Airport Carbon Accredited, CEO Sverre Quale said: “Accreditation will validate our efforts and give more voice to the actions which we are undertaking to minimize our impact on the environment.”
Avinor projects include working on more climate-friendly energy supply systems and aiming to reduce airport car park emissions.
The Airport Carbon Accreditation scheme was launched at ACI EUROPE’s annual congress in Manchester earlier this week with a total of 31 airports (see story).
