New CO2 reducing energy plant opens at Belgrade Airport

A new more environmentally friendly energy plant is being put into operation at Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla Airport.

Using more efficient energy sources and switching from heavy fuels to natural gas, the new heating plant is expected to significantly reduce the Serbian gateway’s carbon footprint.

According to operator, VINCI Airports, the plant’s opening is another important step in deploying its environmental action plan in Belgrade, noting that the airport’s modernisation programme puts “great focus on sustainable business operations with the ultimate goal of reaching Zero Net emissions by 2050”.

The new plant has 44MW of total heating capacity and is equipped with a state-of-art trigeneration system for the production and distribution of the heating, cooling and electric energy.

It will effectively cover all the current and future heating needs of the airport while reducing its carbon footprint by 25%, or equal to the reduction of green-house gasses by 3,000 tons of carbon-dioxide.

VINCI Airports notes that the solutions it provides and the choice of equipment has helped achieve greater efficiency in the production and distribution of thermal energy. This, together with the smart  building management system, is expected to ensure an optimised energy consumption dependent on the outdoor temperature.

“The new power plant for the production and distribution of the heating and electric energy, in addition to decreased environmental impact on global warming and local air quality, provides great savings, both for the airport and in terms of utilisation of available natural resources,” enthused Francois Berisot, CEO of Belgrade Airport.

“Extensive works on airport modernisation and reconstruction include significant investment into environmentally sustainable business, realised to reach one step further in environmental impact reduction in terms of greenhouse gases, water and waste.”

The gateway gained Level 1 certification in ACI’s Airport Carbon Accreditation Programme (ACA) in December 2020 and VINCI Airports states that the opening of the new power plant is just the beginning of its efforts to further reduce CO2 emissions.

Indeed, a 1 MW solar power plant, two solid waste processing plants and a wastewater treatment plant are currently in the final phase of development at the Serbian airport.

In parallel with the works dedicated to sustainable development and business operations, there are ongoing extensive works on modernisation and reconstruction of Nikola Tesla Airport.