Dubai International’s (DXB) apron and aircraft parking areas across its 12.5km2 airfield are now lit with brighter, more efficient LED lights that will deliver annual energy savings of approximately 7,000 MWh, which is equal to 495 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions, or growing more than 8,000 seedlings per year for 10 years.
That’s thanks to the completion of a project that replaced 1,880 conventional 1,000W and 2,000W light fixtures with 1,000 new high-performance LED light fixtures across the apron and parking areas of DXB. The switch to energy efficient LED lights is expected to reduce loads from 2,200KW to just 810KW, a massive drop of 63% in annual consumption.
Describing the project as an important part of Dubai Airports wider efforts towards reducing the airport’s carbon footprint, Omar Binadai, Senior Vice President of Engineering Services at Dubai Airports said, “As an organisation that puts sustainability at the core of its long-term business strategy we are always looking at ways to reduce energy consumption. Retrofit projects that improve efficiency through process enhancement or by replacing conventional systems with the latest in technology are perhaps one of the quickest ways to achieve that objective.”
The lighting project is part of the Dubai Airports and Etihad ESCO agreement announced last year to replace 150,000 conventional light fixtures across DXB with LED lights. Dubai Airports has launched a series of green initiatives since 2019 including a project to replace ground service vehicle fleet with electric and hybrid vehicles, and the installation of a 15,000-panel solar array at DXB’s Terminal 2, the largest at any airport in the Middle East. More recently, the operator banned the use of single-use plastics at Dubai International and Dubai World Central (DWC) effective Jan 1, 2020. These initiatives together with other environmental projects in the future will help Dubai Airports to support the growth of Dubai’s aviation while achieving its sustainability goals. In October 2019, DXB and DWC reached an important milestone on their journey towards neutrality by achieving Level 3 of the Airports Council International’s (ACI) Airport Carbon Accreditation programme.