Burns Helping Philadelphia International Airport Reduce Emissions
To provide financial assistance for airports seeking to reduce airport ground emissions, Congress established a voluntary program to reduce such emissions at commercial airports. This program, initiated in 2004, is administered by the FAA and is called the Voluntary Airport Low Emissions (VALE) Program. Qualifying airports and projects can receive up to 75% reimbursement through the VALE Program to fund low-emissions projects.
Burns is currently providing engineering and design services for the VALE Phase II project at PHL which will provide the airport with over 100 electric vehicle charging stations for use by airline ground service equipment (GSE), and 24 pre-conditioned air (PCA) units to be installed at the Terminal F jet bridges. The electric charging stations will allow airlines to reduce and/or eliminate dependence on vehicles which utilize petroleum based fuels. The PCA units will provide heating and cooling of the aircraft while parked at the jet bridges, and eliminate the need to run the aircraft engines during these periods, thus reducing “fuel burn”. Burns was responsible for the design of the extensive infrastructure required to support the new chargers and PCA equipment, including three new electrical substations and associated power distribution.
Posted on Aug 3, 01:52 PM