Route 2025
Athens International Airport announced in December 2019 the “ROUTE 2025” initiative, its official commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2025. Through this highly significant and internationally pioneering initiative, AIA aims at becoming the first airport operator in Europe to cover 100% of its electricity needs by on-site production from renewable sources and zeroing out its direct emissions from fuel consumption. This will be achieved through the:
a. Electrification of AIA’s vehicle fleet.
b. Expansion of the Photovoltaic Park (PVP) in two phases, a 16MWp PVP which was commissioned in early 2023 and produces enough clean electricity to cover 45% of AIA's annual electricity consumption needs and a 35.5MWp PVP with an 82MWh battery energy storage system, expected to be commissioned in the second half of 2025.
c. Installation of heat pumps for heating purposes, to replace natural gas,
out of which the PV/BESS and HP projects are funded under RRF with the following characteristics:
Investment under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF)
• Design, Construction, Operation and Maintenance of a 35.5 MWp Photovoltaic Park (PVP) with 82MWh Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) &
• Replacement of the NG fired burners/boilers and electrically driven chillers of ATHENS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’s (AIA) Buildings with high temperature Heat Pumps assemblies
Budget: € 44,055,075.77
RRF Funds: € 22,027,537.89
Athens International Airport S.A. (or “AIA”) raised financing for two (2) Capex Projects, as presented below:
35.5 MWp PV station with 82 MWh BESS:
The development of a 35.5 MWp PV station and an 82 MWh BESS, which will be physically connected to the AIA’s internal electricity grid, directly satisfying AIA’s annual electricity consumption requirements.
Heat Pumps:
The project involves the procurement of heat pumps and the implementation of necessary works related to their installation and connection to buildings' heating and cooling networks, while at the same time the existing natural gas boilers/burners will be kept operational in idle mode as an extra backup.
This investment has been financed through loan support from the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility – NextGenerationEU.
