A team of researchers, led by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in partnership with Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), will work to discover new transportation technologies that could dramatically improve energy use.
NREL is the primary national laboratory for energy efficiency and renewable energy research and development.
The research team also includes Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The team hopes to find mobility options for people and cargo that maximize energy while saving time and costs at the airport. The DOE Vehicle Technologies Office provided a $5 million award for the research.
The laboratories will use their data sciences expertise and high-performance computing capabilities to generate models of current and future behaviors based on real-world data from the airport and its transportation partners.
The models will be used to formulate recommendations that may be used to determine long-term investments.
“By helping the nation’s transportation hubs model possible future scenarios, these insights will help them navigate the rapidly emerging energy-efficient technologies that will change mobility plans for years to come,” Caleb Phillips, NREL senior scientist, said. “Although we are focusing initially on DFW, we expect the models and methodologies to be adaptable to other airports and transportation hubs across the country.”