Massachusetts’ first electric aircraft charging station installed at Marshfield Municipal Airport – Part 2
Take a breeze through BETA Technologies’ website if you want an immediate high. It’ll take you sky high. First stop: The Future of Flight.
In which BETA gives a bird’s eye view of the aerospace pioneer’s two developing electric aircraft, built on their ALIA platform. It’s a simple, lightweight design that allows for either conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) or vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL). These aircraft are all electric and give off no operational emissions.
And they look like something out of a science fiction streaming series. Or, perhaps, The Jetsons.
BETA also designs and builds multimodal electric charging stations (if you’re gonna fly ‘em, you gotta charge ‘em), with 14 chargers stretching from their home in South Burlington, Vermont, to Arkansas and Georgia. And now a 15th BETA electric aircraft charging station is open for business – this one at Marshfield Municipal Airport (KGHG) in Marshfield, Massachusetts.
And, in fact, it is the only electric aircraft charging station in all of Massachusetts. True.
Shoreline Aviation, the fixed base operator of the airport, hosted a celebration of the commissioning of the Level 3 charging station – and also two BETA charging stations built carside (Level 2 and Level 3) in addition to the one built airside. They chose to recognize the launch on October 13. Yes, that would be Friday the 13th. And by all accounts, it would be their lucky day.
“I can’t say it enough – how excited we are to launch out of here with this partnership and this community!” So said Blain Newton, BETA’s chief operating officer, during Shoreline’s charger commissioning ceremonies.
By partnership, Newton means BETA and Shoreline, yes, and also electricity supplier Eversource and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s Aeronautics Division. It may take only two to tango, but it took this four-cornered foundation to launch this mission from an idea on a napkin to liftoff. (See previous and future parts to this series for more on the collaboration.)
Shoreline Aviation President Keith Douglass, left, MassDOT Aeronautics Administrator Jeff DeCarlo, FAA Regional Administrator Colleen D’Alessandro, Eversource VP of Energy Efficiency and Electric Mobility at Eversource Tilak Subrahmanian, and BETA Technologies COO Blain Newton pose with BETA’s ALIA 250 and GATRA’s all electric bus. Photo courtesy of BETA Technologies
What is BETA Technologies?
Newton was one of several speakers during Shoreline’s event (they will all be featured throughout this series). So, who, or what, is BETA Technologies?
“We’re a mission-based company on the path to decarbonize aviation. We recognize you can’t do it by yourself,” he said.
“It takes resonance; it takes people who are on the same path. We see in Massachusetts incredible opportunity. You have some pretty ambitious goals, like net zero emissions by 2050.”
Newton noted that all forms of transportation were going electric – beyond the electric car boom underway. “It’s happening on trains, on cargo ships, on buses – such as this fully electric bus that GATRA brought in to charge on our charging infrastructure.”
Indeed, GATRA – the Greater Attleboro Taunton Transit Authority – drove one of its six 35-foot electric buses to the event. GATRA’s agent said the buses have a stated range of 150 miles on a full charge, but as a practical matter they get over 200 miles. Indeed, the 34-mile ride from Taunton to Marshfield barely made a dent in the dial. These buses replaced six diesel powered buses.
Why is this a big deal?
So, what’s the hubbub about electric aviation?
Aviation, BETA says, currently contributes 3-9% of greenhouse gas emissions. And those numbers are growing.
“If we don’t do something about it by the mid-2030s, aviation will account for half of greenhouse gasses,” Newton said. “From our perspective at BETA, we can’t allow that to happen. This was started in Vermont in 2017. We’ve been on that mission to show it’s possible. This charger here, the first in Massachusetts, joins 14 others that are operational and another 60 that are in various stages of construction.”
Newton noted that the future of air mobility may end up in city centers – with VTOL aircraft landing on parking garages and building roofs. “But the reality is the promise of this is to end up in communities enhancing what communities have in existing airports,” he said. “There are 5,000 airports just like this all over the country that are underutilized.”
BETA has two of their ALIA 250 aircraft, one of which appeared at Marshfield Friday. “This particular aircraft,” he said, pointing behind him, “is on its way down the east coast to a mission with the Air Force at Eglin Air Force Base. To be able to launch out of here in Marshfield is pretty awesome. I say this as a matter of pride: Marshfield, at 3900 feet, is the shortest airstrip we’ve come in on. That, for us, is a big deal.”
BETA expects its two prototypes to be FAA certified by 2024 and 2025.
Cutting the ceremonial ribbon are, from left, MassDOT Aeronautics Administrator Jeff DeCarlo, Rep. Josh Cutler aide Susan Moran, Marshfield Town Administrator Michael Maresco, state Senator Patrick O’Connor, Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Amy Naples, Geoff Douglass (who spearheaded the project for Shoreline), Shoreline Aviation President Keith Douglass, FAA Regional Administrator Colleen D’Alessandro, BETA Technologies COO Blain Newton, South Shore Chamber of Commerce Director of Local Affairs Eric Dykeman. Photo courtesy of BETA Technologies
When will we see it?
“The real promise here is that this is a symbol of what the future of air mobility looks like. These will be all over the country not in decades, in years,” Newton said. “There will be thousands and thousands of electric aircraft flying all over this country by 2030. That makes it a pretty exciting time to be alive.”
In the meantime, the chargers at Marshfield Airport are in use today. The public can charge ground vehicles at the carside chargers. They just need to download the BETA smartphone app, associate a credit card with it, and use it to charge away. And the airside charger, intended to charge aircraft, can also charge ground vehicles.
From start to finish, this charging station project took about four years to happen. They will go much faster.
“Look, innovation is hard. People think you kind of wake up, and it’s there,” Newton said. “The reality is, it takes a series of significant failures, of bumping your head, and stubbing your toe, and learning, and moving on and moving on and moving forward. It takes a lot of vision, and it takes courage and patience and dedication, and man, have we seen that in spades with this team that came together to help us put this charger in. It’s been pretty awesome to see.
“I can’t say it enough, how excited we are to launch out of here with this partnership and this community.
“Massachusetts should be proud with what has happened here with this team today. The country is watching this.”
Come back for more parts to this series, featuring the insights of stakeholders and proponents of combatting global warming through technological development.
Photos and video courtesy of BETA Technologies.
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