Sea-Tac Airport goes green with electric vehicles

Sea-Tac airport in Seattle have introduced a new program in an attempt to cut fuel consumption and pollution within the airport and its surroundings by introducing a new fleet of electric powered vehicles.

The airport has got rid of 200 diesel powered vehicles including baggage tugs, , planeside luggage conveyors and pushback aircraft tugs. These vehicles have been replaced by battery powered vehicles.

There are 296 charging stations across the airport but it is hoped that by September this will be expanded to 576 points across the whole airport. The switch to electric ramp vehicles is the latest part of a major environmental effort at the airport aimed at cutting fossil fuel use at Sea-Tac.

This new program has been introduced after the air conditioning system was changed to a central conditioned air system that changed the old system which kept the planes interior heated and cooled while they are being loaded and unloaded, for example for baggage and fuel. The new system that was introduced instead connected the flexible ducts directly to the plane from the airports heating and cooling system and saves the airport almost 15 million annually.

These two programs along with the natural gas powered buses make the airport one of the most environmentally friendly airports in the world.

The electric vehicles not only produce no local pollution, they're less noisy and require less maintenance than the vehicles powered by internal combustion engines.

The electric equipment is recharged at "charging corrals" located beside the airport gates. The equipment's intermittent use allows them to be "refuelled" during periods when airport traffic is light."

The conversion to electric vehicles was funded in part by federal grants from the U.S. Department of Energy and the Federal Aviation Administration.  Airlines are also paying a portion of the cost for replacing fossil-fuel vehicles and in higher rental rates.