Posted Sep 28, 2022, 3:16 PM
Major French companies have taken the issue of energy sobriety head on for several years, if only to reduce their carbon footprint.
Vinci: turning to solar energy
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa himself made the trip. On September 7, the photovoltaic plant at Faro airport was inaugurated, the first of its kind in Portugal. With a capacity of 3 MWp (megawatt-peak, unit measuring the maximum power under standard conditions), it will cover 30% of the electricity needs of this airport concession of the French giant. It is above all one of the showcases of the vast program of greening the energies consumed by its various infrastructures, whether airports or motorways.
In Portugal, five other airports are concerned, as well as that of Lyon-Saint-Exupéry in France. The choice of solar is essential to achieve the decarbonization objectives that Vinci Airports set itself in 2016: zero net CO emissions2 in 2050 worldwide, but from 2030 for Europe. Today, the deployment of photovoltaic panels installed by Vinci Concessions (airports and motorways combined) reaches 35 MWp out of a potential of 1 GWp (ie 1,000 MWp).
La Poste: encouraging eco-driving
Since 2009, the French postal operator has trained no less than 80,000 postal workers in eco-driving. Changing gears quickly to get to the gear that consumes the least, respecting braking distances, engine braking to decelerate in rough landscapes or even moderate acceleration on climbs, so many gestures which in the end generate a saving of nearly 10% of fuel. Incidentally, the CO balance2 of its vehicle fleet also benefits.
Today, 100% of new drivers take this one-and-a-half-hour training module delivered face-to-face or via e-learning. So as not to lose control, the 80,000 people already trained will benefit from a booster shot over the 2020-2023 period via a new updated e-learning session. Skills that employees will not fail to put to good use even at the wheel of their personal vehicle!
Saint-Gobain: recovering heat
Four years and 30 million euros of investment were needed to modernize Aniche-Emerchicourt, the main glazing production unit for the Saint-Gobain building in France. The opportunity to work on the energy equation of a very energy-intensive profession by recovering the heat emitted by the manufacturing process on this site in Hauts-de-France which has just celebrated its bicentenary. Launched in early 2021, several innovative projects in this area will see the light of day next year. In concrete terms, part of the heat released during the various stages of glass production will be recovered and reused, in particular for melting the raw materials needed to manufacture the glass, but also for heating the storage warehouses for the finished product, which needs minimum temperature to maintain its properties.
Overall, these measures will enable the site’s gas consumption to be reduced by more than 10%, which recently distinguished itself by demonstrating the group’s ability to produce the lowest carbon glass on the market.
Air France: optimizing routes
“ The first work on the company’s fuel savings dates back to 2009. After an increase in measures in 2015, we have moved into the next world since 2018 by multiplying them explains Laurent Lafontan, development director for air operations at Air France. After having exhausted the wheel of solutions as simple as zero paper, lighter seats, filling the water reserves according to the number of passengers and the length of the journey or even the use, as far as possible, of a single engine to taxi to the take-off runway, the company has co-developed an app with the start-up Safety Line to optimize flight paths. Available on a tablet, this tool gives pilots the information to choose the speeds that optimize the climb gradients, to adopt the most direct trajectories in cruising speed and to favor a smooth or continuous descent rather than in stages, in depending on traffic conditions, the day’s weather and device performance.
“If we take the example of continuous descents, these experiments already concern 15% of our arrivals at Roissy on Boeing 777 or 737, which is equivalent to an annualized gain of 1,500 tonnes of fuel and a halving of noise pollution.explains Laurent Lafontan. A total of 13,000 tonnes could be exceeded if the tool were deployed across our entire fleet, provided that we systematically benefit, at Roissy, from the possibilities of continuous descent. Next February, this procedure will be officially adopted by Charles-de-Gaulle airport.
Renault: mobilizing management on a daily basis
The bodywork painting station alone accounts for 40% of the energy cost of assembling a vehicle, hence the renewed attention of a manufacturer like Renault to optimize the heating time necessary for quality painting. . ” From the end of 2021, when the price of gas started to soar even before the Ukrainian crisis, we relaunched very tight management of all our factories to take control of this heating time. It’s about having the right person at the right time to start the heating of the baths before the arrival of the first team », explains the director of industrial system engineering, Nicolas Estèbe.
If the diamond brand has already had a team dedicated to the management of energy systems and a system for measuring consumption six years ago, ” it needs to be modernized “. We must multiply the installation of sensors to measure not daily, but hour by hour, the smooth running of this station. Objective: to be able to to alert site management in real time and no longer to process the results of the day before in the morning “, underlines this official. It is up to him to correct the timing of the human intervention necessary to better manage this heating time and therefore its energy cost.
Schneider: digitizing buildings
IntenCity, the energy services giant’s new R&D center opened in Grenoble two years ago, is a real showcase of its expertise in the technical management of buildings. Its energy needs are eight times lower than the average for standard tertiary buildings in Europe. The use, from the design of the center, of a 3D visualization model, including to reproduce in real time the energy behavior of the building, contributes to this. Just like the choice of a concrete envelope, Saint-Gobain electrosensitive glazing and solar protection. Temperature, natural or artificial light or even relative humidity are monitored by an armada of sensors which generate some 60,000 data points every one to ten minutes. On the basis of this data and the planning for the occupation of the premises by four typical user profiles, a computer platform automatically adapts ventilation and temperature zone by zone in a building designed from its design by the Groupe-6 firm. Architecture to be energy efficient.
Agrial: changing refrigeration technology
The energy sobriety efforts of the agri-food cooperative giant are not new. As of 2016, more than thirty studies have been launched as part of a program called Franklin. Among the initiatives initiated by 25 of its sites, the Cidrerie de Domagné is a particularly interesting case. The Breton factory, which processes 30,000 to 40,000 tonnes of apples per year, took this opportunity to change its cooling system by replacing its eleven compressors with ammonia-based technology. Incidentally, the unit of the French leader in cider has done a double blow, both anticipating the ban on certain refrigerant gases by 2030 and reducing its energy bill, not to mention the maintenance time of the system. By combining its impact with efforts made elsewhere, particularly in heat recovery, Domagné has reduced its gas and electricity bills by 7% over five years, which saves 530 tons of carbon equivalent or 550 return flights Paris-New York.
