Airbus partners SP Group to reduce emissions from electricity at Singapore training centre
This will be the first Airbus building in Singapore to deploy the utilities group’s technology
AIRCRAFT manufacturer Airbus will work with power grid operator SP Group to reduce the energy usage of its training centre in Singapore, through the use of a cooling technology that optimises air-conditioning.
The technology was piloted at the building in late 2024. As a result, the electrical energy consumption of one of its air-conditioning equipment was reduced by 48.8 per cent, while the cooling energy consumption was cut by close to 20 per cent.
General manager of the training centre Silvia Meloni said at a press conference on Monday (Jan 13) that given the energy savings from the trial run, Airbus will look to implement the technology – which utilises artificial intelligence and internet of things to control airflow – across the whole building by the end of March this year.
The cooling solution is expected to reduce the building’s annual carbon emissions by 180 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, she noted.
“So what has been done in our building, which is nearly 10 years old, shows that we can make strides towards sustainability by implementing energy-efficient system to existing structures. It does not mean because we are in old facilities that we (do) nothing and just sit down waiting for a big renovation,” she said.
Nonetheless, she added that this does not mean that the facility – which houses 10 flight simulators and is Airbus largest training centre globally – would be able to meet the minimum standards to qualify for a green building certification by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), known as the Green Mark.
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The training centre, which was operational since 2016, was not constructed with those standards in mind, and there are other criteria, such as windows and roofing, that have to be met before it can receive the certification.
However, the aircraft manufacturer is in the process of evaluating the potential of developing an extension to the training centre. If that is approved, the plan is for the extension to fully meet the Green Mark criteria set out by BCA.
Despite the limitations in making the existing centre fully green, Meloni noted that the company is looking to implement more efficient solutions at the training centre such that it can be as close as possible to Green Mark standards.
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The partnership with SP Group is the latest in its efforts to reduce the training centre’s emissions arising from the purchase of electricity, which is known as Scope 2 emissions.
In November last year, they had completed installing solar panels on the centre’s rooftop, which can provide about 18 per cent of its energy needs and reduce its carbon emissions by 275 tonnes.
The training centre’s Scope 2 emissions, however, is only a very small portion of Airbus’ total emissions. Across the whole company, Scope 1 and 2 emissions make up only 0.4 per cent of its total emissions in 2023. Scope 1 refer to emissions arising out of a company’s operational activities.
While the technology provided by SP Group has been around since 2021, this would be the first Airbus building in Singapore to deploy it.
The cooling solution optimises the use of air-condition by dynamically adjusting temperatures in various spaces of a building by detecting the weather and number of people in each micro-zone.
She said that the energy savings are significant, as air-conditioning takes up 75 per cent of the centre’s energy consumption. They will monitor the results of this technology at its training centre before they decide whether they would also implement it in its two other physical assets in Singapore.
The technology has also been implemented in other buildings including Republic Plaza, Singapore Land Tower and the Singapore Institute of Technology’s campus in Punggol.
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