NREL Study Shows Airport Energy Savings in Surprising Places … – NREL

As you walk th­rough the airport’s glass doors, your phone buzzes. You open the camera,
hold it in front of you, and spin a slow 360 degrees. When you look at your phone
screen, bright, translucent arrows overlay the ground in front of you, guiding you
through the revolving doors and pointing you to the airport’s security checkpoint.
As you move through the terminal, the digital arrows steer you down a corridor, onto
a train, up an escalator, and finally to your gate, where your plane is almost ready
to board.

This experience, called “augmented reality navigation,” is just one of a host of emerging
digital technologies that aim to make passengers’ travel through airports more equitable
and energy-efficient—not to mention more convenient.

And these futuristic technologies take center stage in a new, comprehensive analysis by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researchers that aims to reimagine
how sustainability figures into the way people travel to (and through) enormous facilities
like airports.

Building Greener Airports by Understanding People

“When people think of renewable energy, they don’t always think about mobility systems
or behavioral science. Our team studies both,” said NREL’s Stan Young, an advanced
transportation and urban scientist who was part of the project’s research team.

“We combine field observations, data, and analysis to understand how people will respond
to new sustainable mobility options and make sure that new technologies will actually
meet their needs and become something they want to adopt,” Young continued. “In 2015,
we began studying this in the context of cities and public spaces. That includes airports
and air mobility. Airports are so economically vibrant and vital that they tend to
be ground zero for new technologies.”

That focus led the team to partner with Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)
on their ambitious goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions with no offset credits
by 2030.

The report, one of a longstanding series of NREL/DFW collaborations, details five major paths the airport could take to build a more sustainable, equitable,
and convenient “transportation ecosystem” for travelers and employees at the nation’s
second-busiest airport. Wayfinding, the process of using information systems to move
through a facility, is just one piece of the report.

The main thrust of the research is this: By considering every aspect of how people
travel through airports—from moving through security to accessing different terminals—airports
can create opportunities to integrate new, fuel-efficient technologies to reduce the
carbon footprints of their operations, buildings, and transportation.

And wayfinding, the digital and physical information systems that guide passengers
through a facility, could be a critical component of an airport’s transformation.

“The concept of wayfinding has a technological aspect,” Young explained. “But it also
involves a change of philosophy. Wayfinding used to be done with static signs and
information kiosks staffed by airport employees. We’re seeing now that wayfinding
technologies need to be wedded with information systems and smartphones so you can
find your way around a massive facility and all of the transportation options therein.”

For Airports, More Is Not Always Better

At the core of the sustainable mobility discussion, at least for DFW, is the airport’s
enormous scale. Spanning five half-moon-shaped terminals and with plans to build a
sixth, the airport covers 27 square miles—more than the island of Manhattan—and has
its own zip code and city designation.

“The size of the DFW facility is fundamentally breaking some of our architectural
boundaries,” Young said, referring to the “quarter-mile standard,” which is frequently
used to design walkable public transportation systems.

“When people can’t get to their plane on time because of the size of an airport, that
creates inefficiencies, and inefficiencies waste resources,” Young continued, explaining
that simply cutting down on travel delays can create fuel savings—measured in both
dollars and carbon emissions—for airports.

Although there are many causes for flight delays, ensuring passengers get to their
gates on time can improve operational efficiency, he said. When idling, a typical
aircraft burns about three gallons of jet fuel per minute. Passenger mobility improvements
can contribute to reduced delays and aircraft idling time, and, at a national scale,
this could result in substantial fuel savings while enhancing passenger experiences.

And digital wayfinding technologies, the researchers found, can contribute to these
improvements.

In their analysis, the NREL research team points to several potential wayfinding strategies.
Several large technology companies are already piloting interior building navigation,
similar to an indoor GPS, that works on regular smartphones. In 2020, Indoor Google
Maps launched an augmented reality tool called Live View that compares what a smartphone
camera “sees” to a database of facility images, then superimposes directional arrows
on the camera image. That same year, Zurich Airport in Switzerland partnered with
Google Maps to become the first airport to offer an indoor live view.

Other airports and technology companies are working to deploy Bluetooth low-energy
beacons in a bid to advance indoor positioning technology. In the same way that beacons
aid outdoor GPS navigation, indoor beacons could, with permission, sense a passenger’s
trajectory through a facility and send them navigation instructions based on where
they are and where they are headed, from their gate or baggage carousel to a coffee
shop or ATM.

These technologies are not only useful for helping travelers move more efficiently.
They may also support the adoption of the state-of-the-art transportation systems
powered by renewable energy proposed in the NREL team’s report, which aim to become
more convenient than traditional travel to the airport. Some of the technologies envisioned
for the near future include self-parking car technologies at drop-off zones so passengers
can disembark while their vehicle parks itself, and on-demand, automated, electric
transit shuttles to easily move between airport facilities. Digital wayfinding technologies
that help guide travelers to connect between mode options, explain their function
and use, and inform passengers where and when they will arrive may help to increase
the use of this cutting-edge, energy-efficient technology.

Equitable Airport Travel for All

These technologies, the researchers note, can also address the needs of an often-overlooked
population: people with reduced mobility.

“A 20-minute walk through an airport to a particular gate is not possible for every
person who travels,” said NREL’s Andrew Duvall, a transportation behavior analyst
who was part of the research team.

Duvall pointed to the fact that many people who travel through airports have mobility
limitations that require them to use elevators, escalators, or ramps. They may be
traveling with young children or with a companion who has reduced mobility. English
may not be their first language, and it may be too confusing to navigate the facility.
For all these reasons and more, the researchers are focused on strategies to connect
travelers, point-by-point, through a large facility in a way that is equitable, accessible,
and convenient for all.

“At the center of this research is improving equity of access for those with the least
mobility. But it also has benefits for everyone else,” Duvall said. “If you design
for the people with the least mobility, you also create benefits for everyone using
the system.”

Of course, to fully decarbonize an entire airport, more efficient wayfinding is only
one piece of the puzzle.

Young pointed to the need for large facilities like airports to create “horizontal
movement solutions” that efficiently move and direct people—and also integrate sustainability
into their design. Those solutions, he said, may require re-envisioning systems from
the bottom up. For instance, the researchers found that DFW’s Skylink train is a significant
asset: It connects passengers who have cleared security within all five terminals.
But the system is cost prohibitive, space prohibitive, and its route cannot be easily
adjusted to accommodate the airport’s growth. Researchers project that the next generations
of such trains will need to leverage autonomous and electric technologies to help
airports meet renewable energy goals.

“Modern technology is giving us tools to create efficient, flexible systems that surpass
last-century workhorses,” Young said. “These are the technologies that will allow
us to create efficient and equitable solutions for the next generation of facilities.”

Learn more about NREL’s sustainable transportation and mobility research and its specific focus on sustainable aviation. And sign up for NREL’s quarterly transportation and mobility research newsletter,
Sustainable Mobility Matters, to get the latest news.