At Stockholm Arlanda, some 16,000 people are employed at various companies and organisations which together use as much energy as a small Swedish city. Stockholm Arlanda Airport’s energy consumption includes space heating, electricity and cooling.
At Swedavia, which owns, operates and develops the airport, Stockholm Arlanda Energy is the department responsible for the airport’s energy use. Stockholm Arlanda Energy’s activities include purchasing and producing energy which is then distributed to the companies and organisations at the airport.
Swedavia has zero emissions
Most buildings at the airport are warmed up today with district heating based on biofuel. Swedavia also purchases “green electricity certificates” equivalent to its entire electricity consumption. These certificates guarantee electricity production from exclusively renewable sources, that is, wind, solar, hydropower and/or biofuels. Swedavia’s net carbon dioxide emissions from space heating of its own buildings and from its own use of electricity at Stockholm Arlanda are thus regarded as being zero.
Arlanda Energi awarded Swedish Energy Prize
Swedavia Stockholm Arlanda has worked systematically with energy issues for a number of years, and in 2009 the airport was awarded the Swedish Energy Prize for its business model, which adopts a comprehensive approach to energy matters at the airport and has reduced energy consumption by 25 per cent in four years.
The Swedish Energy Prize is bestowed by the technology consultant Sweco. It is awarded for technical ideas and innovations that have been tested in real life and been shown to save energy.
The Swedish Energy Prize – read more on Sweco’s website (in Swedish, new window)
Energy-saving measures
In the summer of 2009, Stockholm Arlanda inaugurated the world’s largest energy storage unit – a so-called aquifer – in the nearby boulder ridge known as Brunkebergsåsen. This was designed to cool the airport in the summer and heat it in the winter in an energy-efficient manner. Energy efficiency measures have been a part of the airport’s core activities, and a long list of improvements have been implemented, including the following:
- heat recycling in the terminals
- more efficient ventilation
- variable speed electric motors
- more efficient, better controlled lighting indoors and outdoors
The aquifer – read more
All space heating shall be biofuel-based – a future target
Swedavia also wants other companies’ buildings at Stockholm Arlanda to use renewable energy. Net carbon dioxide emissions from space heating of other buildings at the airport are already low − carbon dioxide emissions from space heating in the entire airport are 95 per cent lower today than in 1990. The target is that all space heating of buildings at the airport shall be biofuel-based. This is why the removal of the last oil-burning energy systems at Stockholm Arlanda is being accelerated.