Alaska Airlines has a bold sustainability goal, net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. For the fifth largest airline in America this is a heavy lift that requires a whole business approach and whole lot of collaboration
Some of the most impactful ways Alaska is achieving these targets is through projects like this lighting retrofit at SEA-TAC airport. Pacific Energy Concepts (PEC) in partnership with EC Electric are helping Alaska reach their goals by maximizing every kilowatt of energy consumed while reducing their overall energy demand from lighting.
“Lighting retrofits and the work that we did in this hangar shows how we can save energy, save money and also have that great employee experience” states Kirk Myers, the company’s former Director of Sustainability.
Over the past 6 years Alaska Airlines has worked with Pacific Energy Concepts (PEC) and EC Electric to design, develop, and deploy energy saving lighting systems in their hangars, flight schools, and offices.
This SEA-TAC LED retrofit project alone saves over 1,160,348 kWhs annually, which equates to 705.6 Tons of CO2 sequestered or over 95,000 gallons of gas saved per year.
The new system not only replaced old incumbent lighting fixtures with optically superior LED but reduced the controllable operating costs of this facility by approximately 82%.
The solution was designed by one of PEC’s senior Sales Directors Tommy Allen, “this solution not only reduced the wattage consumption at the fixture level, but we also integrated networked lighting controls which, by utilizing a daylight harvesting technique, turned this system into a ‘smart lighting system’.”
The daylight harvesting technique enables optimization for spaces, such as this airplane hangar, where significant amounts of natural ambient light come through. Light fixtures sense the amount of ambient light available, adjust in relation to one another, and optimize to the perfect light levels while using the least amount of electricity.
“This facility is an amazing use of new technology, and smart fixtures that actually understand how much light is in the building.” states Mr. Myers.
Protecting the planet for future generations is always a collaborative effort. Not only did this project receive over $175k in incentives from the Port of Seattle but won the “Environmental Excellence Award” for outstanding environmental accomplishments.
Working around Alaska’s maintenance crew and minimizing disruption, while ensuring a safe and swift execution is a major part of helping make this an exemplary project. Work that is made do-able through the extensive and seamless collaboration between EC Electric and Pacific Energy Concepts’ (PEC) sales and implementation teams.
