{"id":42443,"date":"2018-02-13T10:56:24","date_gmt":"2018-02-13T18:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=42443"},"modified":"2019-07-18T23:37:46","modified_gmt":"2019-07-19T06:37:46","slug":"delivering-packages-drones-might-good-environmen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/delivering-packages-drones-might-good-environmen\/","title":{"rendered":"Delivering packages with drones might be good for the environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nThere are\u00a0more than 1 million drones<\/a>\u00a0registered in the U.S. Most of them belong to people flying them for fun, but a growing number are used commercially. Companies including\u00a0Amazon<\/a>,\u00a0UPS<\/a>,\u00a0Google<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0DHL<\/a>\u00a0are already exploring ways to deliver packages with drones instead of trucks. Our new research has\u00a0measured how that shift would change how the U.S. uses energy<\/a>, and the resulting environmental effects.<\/p>\n

We found that in some cases using electric-powered drones<\/a> rather than diesel-powered trucks or vans could reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. But in other cases, using trucks \u2013 especially electric-powered ones \u2013 would be more efficient and cleaner.<\/p>\n

The U.S. electricity sector has been rapidly transitioning to\u00a0generating power with fewer greenhouse gas emissions<\/a>. But transportation is still largely powered by fuels made from oil and is now the\u00a0largest source<\/a>\u00a0of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. About one-quarter of transportation emissions, the equivalent of 415 million metric tons of carbon dioxide,\u00a0comes from medium- and heavy-duty trucks<\/a>, the kinds of vehicles that deliver freight to warehouses, businesses and consumers\u2019 homes.<\/p>\n

Reducing the need for trucking by delivering some packages with electric drones could save fuel, and potentially carbon emissions. We modeled how much energy drone delivery would use, and how it would be different from the ways packages are delivered now.<\/p>\n

Finding a drone\u2019s energy use<\/strong><\/h4>\n

First, our team \u2013 led from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and including researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, SRI International and the University of Colorado\u2013Boulder \u2013 measured the energy use of quadcopter and octocopter-style drones carrying different payloads. The amount of energy a drone uses depends on how heavy the drone itself is, its batteries and whatever packages it\u2019s carrying \u2013 as well as other factors, including how fast it\u2019s moving and wind conditions.<\/p>\n

For the purposes of making an overall estimate, we settled on a quadcopter drone capable of delivering a 1.1 pound (0.5 kg) package and an octocopter drone capable of delivering a 17.6 pound (8 kg) package, each with a range of about 2.5 miles (4 km). We considered a range of battery technologies and fuels, but focused on lithium-based batteries for our base case, because that\u2019s what powers most current electric drones.<\/p>\n