Envisioning the Future of Zero-Emission Transportation at Airports: Athena ZEV (Text Version)

This is the text version of the video Envisioning the Future of Zero-Emission Transportation at Airports: Athena ZEV.

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Large airports are powered by complex energy infrastructures with diverse, variable loads that are projected to scale significantly over time. In a new U.S. Department of Energy funded project called Athena ZEV, NREL is working with Dallas Fort Worth International Airport to develop sophisticated strategies that will accelerate the decarbonization of thousands of vehicles operating at the airport, with an initial focus on rental car operations by leveraging a combination of the lab's ARIES platform, digital twins representing transportation and building demand, and on-site energy storage.

These simulations will explore scenarios of widespread EV adoption by rental car companies at Dallas Fort Worth over the next several years, which is expected to put thousands of new electric vehicles on the road. Fast, high-power charging will likely be required to get these cars rented to customers quickly. This could increase peak loads by several megawatts and create significant grid impacts in the absence of intelligent controls and optimal integration with energy storage, renewable power generation, and flexible building loads.

NREL's ARIES platform will be the key to the success of this effort by allowing researchers to perform crucial at-scale experiments, including necessary hardware, software, and controls validation to de-risk and optimize the airport's investments and integrated solutions for controllable building loads and electric vehicle charging infrastructure expansion.

By leveraging the lab's deep expertise in commercial buildings, vehicle grid integration, and behind-the-meter storage, ARIES will identify sophisticated technology solutions to meet Dallas Fort Worth's ambitious electrification goals, while maintaining a reliable energy supply other critical infrastructure that supports their operations all before the airport spins a dime on real-world deployment. Still, the biggest challenges lie ahead and we invite collaborators to solve them with us through the next generation of research infrastructure at NREL.

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[Text on screen: NREL Transforming Energy]