Photovoltaic land area converted into aviation fuel and passenger flight performance

Abstract

Purpose – Show with three simple example calculations the effect that photovoltaic (PV) energy production can have on commercial flight operations. Considered is rooftop PV, normal ground-mounted PV, and ground-mounted PV at airports. --- Methodology – Calculations are based on first principles, common parameters, and statistics. --- Findings – The result highlights the extremely high energy needs of commercial aviation relative to the renewable-energy yield of land by means of PV. The conclusion is not that airport-associated PV is unimportant. On the contrary, PV can contribute meaningfully to airport energy supply and synthetic-fuel production for aircraft operation. However: The calculation shows that even comparatively large PV areas that airports could offer correspond to only a small fraction (e.g. 1%) of the fuel demand created by commercial flight operations at the airport.