VerdeXchange Virtual Hack-a-thon Workshops How Electric Airplanes Can Create Resilient Clean Energy Hubs

VerdeXchange Virtual Hack-a-thon Workshops How Electric Airplanes Can Create Resilient Clean Energy Hubs

LOS ANGELES—On Tuesday, September 1, 2020, Verdexchange hosted the first in its fall series of virtual hack-a-thon sessions exploring innovative opportunities to strengthen Southern California’s energy resiliency and delivery model. Leaders from the California Air Resources Board, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, South Coast Air Quality Management District, and Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator and more gathered to discuss a proposal for turning LA County municipal airports into clean energy resilience hubs. 

By leveraging deployment of electric and hybrid personal airplanes designed by LA-based, Ampaire, the group of marketmakers, including Diverse Communities Impact Fund's Tom Soto and Ampaire’s Kevin Noertker, worked through a proposal for layering investments in zero-emission vehicle charging infrastructure with efforts to transform and decarbonize the aviation transportation industry. 

As Southern California faces historic wildfires and extreme heat that threaten existing energy infrastructure, converting airports into community-scale microgrids could provide resilience from blackouts via local renewable generation and large-scale energy storage opportunities. These large-scale storage deployments could help bend the cost curve for rapidly advancing battery technologies that can provide critical resilience services. The group also discussed how, from a land use perspective, municipal airports are among the largest tracts of land in the LA region.

Among the key takeaways from the session were:

  • Engaging LA County Supervisors and leadership on studying municipal airport microgrid feasibility
  • Engaging South Coast AQMD to identify amount of leaded fuel still in use by private planes, and how clean air investment funds could be used to phase out leaded fuel to benefit environmental justice communities
  • Connecting EV charging infrastructure installers and project managers with county airport officials
  • Quantifying green jobs and manufacturing jobs potential of turning municipal airports into microgrids

Weren’t able to make Session #1? Join us, Tuesday, September 15 at 12:00pm PST for our next Hack-a-thon:  Funding a Decarbonized Goods  Movement Network to Address Environmental Injustices  Featuring UT-Austin's Michael Webber (author of the 2019 book, Power Trip: The Story of Energy), EDF's Tim O’Connor and Center for Sustainable Energy's Karen Glitman, Session #2 will explore reimagining the incentive policy around decarbonizing the goods movement sector. Click to register