The aviation sector stands at the forefront of one of the biggest challenges — how to grow and evolve while reducing its environmental impact. For airport operators, that means grappling with growing passenger demands, aging infrastructure, and an increasingly complex web of energy, carbon and resiliency targets.

Our team has been partnering with the Maryland Aviation Administration (MAA) to create a comprehensive decarbonization roadmap for two of its airports: Baltimore/Washington International (BWI) Thurgood Marshall Airport and Martin State Airport. This roadmap supports both MAA’s priorities: to achieve compliance with state and federal climate legislation while preparing their infrastructure for future passenger and airline growth.

Our challenge was to help MAA to meet ambitious climate targets, including Maryland’s Climate Solutions Now Act goals of a 60 percent greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction by 2031 and net zero by 2045; while simultaneously accommodating terminal growth and enhancing system resilience.

Tools that visualize action

Our aim was to help MAA make sense of a very complex picture. To do that, we created several in-house energy and emissions modeling tools, including:

• Central energy plant analysis tool (CEPA), which allows us to rapidly simulate various plant configurations and identify cost-effective, lower-carbon solutions that align with future electrification goals.
• Microgrid modeling tools, which allow us to model the performance of on-site solar power, battery storage, diesel backup generation, and their ability to collectively maintain critical operations during grid outages. Beyond resilience, we explored how a microgrid could also reduce energy costs by selling power back to the utility when it’s economically viable.
• Digital twin technology, which shows exactly where new energy systems (solar PV arrays, battery storage, future electrified central plants) are located. This not only helps with internal communication and stakeholder buy-in but also serves as a planning tool that ties infrastructure improvements directly to capital investment decisions.

Metrics that inform decisions

Metrics are the backbone of any credible roadmap, and for MAA, we focused on three primary dimensions: 1) energy use, 2) GHG emissions, and 3) cost.

One of the most important strategies we had to deploy was the transition away from fossil fuels by electrifying legacy natural gas systems. This helped shift emissions from Scope 1 (on-site combustion) to Scope 2 (purchased electricity). At the same time, we modeled future electricity market scenarios in the PJM grid (which includes Maryland), where electricity prices are forecast to rise by as much as 30 percent. This dual focus allowed us to balance emissions reduction with cost resilience.

We also provided clarity on Scope 3 emissions, particularly those from airline operations, providing strategies for how MAA can influence reductions through collaboration with carriers, sustainable aviation fuel adoption, and more efficient airfield and gate operations.

Timelines that anchor implementation

We mapped each target to specific, timed actions and bundled them into short-, medium-, and long-term initiatives that integrated with MAA’s existing capital improvement plans. In effect, we transformed decarbonization from ambition into an embedded part of their growth strategy.

We helped MAA identify which projects they should advance now (e.g. electrifying existing systems, installing solar and storage) and which could be phased in later, ensuring each investment was justified not only environmentally, but financially and operationally.

Through a clear, actionable framework, we helped MAA move from planning to progress, with every decarbonization initiative supporting both their sustainability goals and long-term operational success.

For more information about our portfolio decarbonization and climate resilience services visit: Portfolio Decarbonization and Climate Resilience

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Tell us a bit about yourself – your role and career journey.

I’m the Decarbonization Technical Lead for our High Performance Buildings team based out of Washington D.C., United States. 

My educational background is in physics. I really loved how physics helped explain the way the world works and I realized that I wanted to pursue an education and career in the sustainable built environment.

My career journey started with a year of service with AmeriCorps where I worked with Habitat for Humanity in Northern Virginia working on the development of sustainable buildings.  After working for Habitat for Humanity, I got involved in the Solar Decathlon, which is a competition for net zero homes sponsored by the Department of Energy.  One of the homes that won the competition that year was built by the University of Colorado. That inspired me to pursue a master’s degree at the university, focusing my thesis on the least cost pathways for net zero homes in the U.S. working with the National Renewable Energy Lab.

Talk to us about a project that has impacted or been a major highlight of your career. How is it solving the challenges and issues many companies and communities are facing today? 

One project that stands out is our electrification initiative in collaboration with the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority (WMATA), the primary transportation agency serving Washington, D.C., and the D.C. Metro region. This project was initiated in response to a zero-emission requirement law that was passed in Washington, D.C. WMATA decided to pilot a program to electrify its entire bus fleet.

We developed a comprehensive plan to transition WMATA’s vast bus fleet of approximately 1,200 service buses, from a mix of diesel and compressed natural gas to zero-emission alternatives by 2045. This required a complete overhaul of their service offerings, maintenance practices and operations. Additionally, we designed and executed a pilot program for WMATA to procure and operate electric buses, conducting rigorous testing to evaluate their performance relative to the existing fleet.

This project is particularly relevant as it solved the major problem faced by many transit agencies today: the push for zero-emission solutions and the need to replace traditional fossil fuel-based fleets with battery, electric or hydrogen-powered buses. It was also a complex project because WMATA’s service territory spans across D.C., Maryland and Virginia, encompassing multiple electricity utilities with distinct rate schedules and electrification approaches. We collaborated closely with these utilities and their electrification offices to ensure that the grid capacity within WMATA’s operational area could support the charging needs of their expanding electric bus fleet over the next three decades.

Can you provide specific examples where energy storage projects within the built environment have effectively contributed to decarbonization by reducing reliance on traditional energy sources and promoting cleaner, sustainable energy solutions? 

One notable case is the battery energy storage project implemented at Fort Carson, a U.S. Army base in Colorado. The primary goal of this project was to build an on-site battery energy storage system to enhance resilience. Fort Carson relied on the electric utility for power and certain aspects of their operations required uninterrupted access to electricity. To address this, they added a battery energy storage system that could feed their mission with energy that’s stored on-site. This ensured that critical operations could continue without interruption.

Additionally, the system offered cost-saving opportunities. Fort Carson gained the flexibility to choose when and how they accessed grid electricity, taking advantage of lower-cost electricity during off-peak hours and reducing operational costs by switching to their battery system and using the energy that was stored overnight. Furthermore, the installation now had the capability to integrate on-site renewable energy generation, further increasing resilience. By harnessing locally generated power and storing it in the battery system, Fort Carson can now extend its operational capacity during grid outages, especially in cases of emergency that is beyond their control — like severe weather or natural disasters.

What are some of the recent innovations in energy storage technology that are specifically designed to support decarbonization initiatives? 

One of them is the concept of microgrids. Microgrids are a vital component of modern energy systems, as they incorporate on-site energy storage. A microgrid essentially adapts the principles of large-scale transmission and distribution grids, typically from a large power plant, for smaller-scale applications. This shifts the reliance on power plants that use coal, natural gas, or other fossil fuels located miles away and means the generation assets can be distributed and located closer, even within a project’s boundary or an installations boundary. This allows facilities to function independently of an external grid, which increases the resilience and allows more control over loads within the microgrid boundary.

Microgrids offer several key benefits for decarbonization efforts.
1) They enhance resilience by enabling a facility to function independently of the external grid during outages. This control extends to load management, allowing precise control over which loads receive power and for how long during prolonged outages.
2) They grant greater autonomy in energy management, reducing reliance on external energy sources.

As power becomes more expensive and demand charges from utilities increase, microgrids also help minimize expenses by generating power on-site and effectively controlling energy consumption within the facility’s boundaries, hence reducing operational expenses.

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