"It is excellent and important that Finavia can be among the first companies to provide passengers with recharging locations for electric cars in the P1 parking garage of the airport. The new, easy-to-use recharging locations are part of the sustainable development and environmental responsibility policy, which also includes the electric cars we use at the airport, and the replacement of the light technology, for example," says Helsinki Airport's Deputy Director Marko Tikkanen at Finavia.
Finavia provides its passengers with four recharging locations for electric cars in the P1 parking garage of the airport.
The parking spots are located near the entrance of the airport's service floor and are easy to reach. The recharging stations are suitable for medium-paced and slow recharging. In practice, recharging functions through a data connection. The user calls or sends a text message to the number of the recharging station and gains access to the recharging location.
Compared to their existing user volume, the construction of a recharging network for electric cars is relatively expensive. That is why Finavia has implemented the recharge sockets in cooperation with its partners. Ensto, a technology company operating in the power industry, and Symbicon, a manufacturer of digital display technology, have, in cooperation, developed a recharging location which, in addition, to enabling car recharging, shows advertisements to cover the expenses. The advertising solutions are provided by the outdoor advertisement company Clear Channel.
Finavia, guided by energy-efficiency
The goal of Finavia is to continuously improve its energy-efficiency. The carbon dioxide emissions of Finavia's own operations are monitored carefully and the goal is to introduce new low-carbon solutions.
Energy-efficiency has been improved by installing LEDs in the P5 parking garage of Helsinki Airport in autumn 2013, for example. Compared to the previous lighting solution, the energy savings achieved with the LEDs are more than 80% larger. Correspondingly, emissions are also reduced by about 180 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. The reduction corresponds to about 1% of the emissions caused by Finavia's own operations at Helsinki Airport.
In addition, Finavia's goal is to increase the use of alternative motive power options in its vehicles. At the moment, Finavia has one electric car which is used in the parking service at Helsinki Airport. The alternative motive power solutions for buses travelling between the parking areas are being investigated.
Of Finavia's airports, Helsinki Airport and the six airports in Lapland are included in the Airport Carbon Accreditation of the ACI. As part of the accreditation, Finavia's airports have successfully and evenly decreased emissions caused by their own operations.
