Les applications des objets connectés d’aujourd’hui et de demain dans l'énergie

Dans le cadre de mes activités professionnelles, je co-publie aujourd'hui un article dans le dossier Objets connectés du site Smart-grids de la CRE, relayé par EY.

J'y explore les applications et impacts des objets connectés et de l'internet des objets dès aujourd'hui et à attendre dans le secteur de l'énergie dans les pays développés.

Bonne lecture !

VtoG: le véhicule électrique comme levier d’optimisation des réseaux?

A nouveau dans le cadre de mes activités professionnelles, je co-publie un article, cette fois sur le site Smart-grids de la Commission de Régulation de l'Energie (CRE) et relayé sur le site de mon cabinet EY.

Souvent vu comme une contrainte pour le réseau électrique en raison de sa forte consommation et de sa mobilité rendant la charge peu prévisible, le véhicule électrique pourrait se révéler un levier d’optimisation des réseaux. Comment ? A condition qu’il puisse reverser son énergie sur le réseau électrique, il pourrait agir comme une batterie de secours en raison de la désynchronisation de ses besoins de charge. Les véhicules pourraient charger la nuit et participer à l’alimentation électrique d’une ville dans la journée ou aux heures de pointe, tout en respectant les besoins de déplacement de leurs propriétaires.

Une vision… pas si futuriste que ça puisque les premiers projets pilotes de développent partout dans le monde, comme ici le département de la Défense américain qui envisage le remplacement d’une partie de sa flotte si les essais sur la base de l’Armée de l’Air de Los Angeles s’avèrent concluants.

Bonne lecture !

Gaz de schiste : une extraction propre et rentable ?

Dans le cadre de mes activités professionnelles, je signe un article publié hier sur Energie2007. J'y fais un topo sur la fracturation à l'heptafluoropropane, une nouvelle technique d'extraction du gaz de schiste qui pourrait remplacer la fracturation hydraulique et rouvrir l'exploration des sous-sols en France...

Perspectives on the energetic transition

On my blog Energy in transition, I am launching a series of articles which aim is to build an idea of what the energetic transition could be in the 21st century's world. Enjoy the reading!

Being renewable, and being sustainable

Renewables are often associated with offering our lifestyles a sustainable future. Because renewables won't have an end. Because they are clean. Because they have no ecological impact.

I question those issues in today's post, of which I hope you'll enjoy the reading on Energy in transition!

Fossil or renewable?

Today, I follow up with my classification of energy sources with discussing the why and how I made up my mind about the most tangent cases when separating renewable from fossil energies. Enjoy the reading on Energy in transition!

Conventional energies... or not?

I recently published a mapping of energy sources, classifying them as conventional or unconventional, and fossil or renewable energies. Some energies were not so easy to put in one box or the other, so today I focus on the distinction I made between "conventional" and "not-conventional".

Enjoy the reading on Energy in transition!

Two mappings of energy sources

Today, I share two mappings of energy sources that underlie all my articles in order to make clearer how I refer to each type of energy source. Enjoy the reading on Energy in transition!

Rifkin's TIR, pillar 5/5: electric vehicles

Last but not least, the TIR's fifth pillar is about transitioning to electric vehicles (EV), which role is of course to be energy-efficient but also to integrate the first four pillars:

• EV should be as green as possible and be based on renewables (first pillar)
• EV could produce and sell energy and therefore also be small power plant of their own (second pillar)
• EV could store excessive electricity in their batteries (third pillar)
• EV can connect to the grid and therefore participate in the complex game of electricity sharing (fourth pillar)

Hope you'll enjoy the reading on Energy in transition!

SolarKiosk: an example for sustainable development

Today I republish an article about SolarKiosk and its impact in developing countries and the world in general, but this time in English. To me, what's really important is that this company is including in its economical mission social and environmental objectives. And it's not an additional charge for them but really the reason why their activity is working: it is possible to make money AND create social and/or environmental value.

Enjoy the reading on Business with impact!

Rifkin's TIR, pillar 4/5: smart grids

Here is the follow up on Rifkin's Third Industrial Revolution with its forth pillar: the use of smart grids for transportation and distribution of electricity.

You can find the post on my blog Energy in transition. Enjoy the reading!

Rifkin's TIR, pillar 2/5: buildings as power plants

Maintaining the momentum, today I publish my article about the second pillar of the Third Industrial Revolution, according to Jeremy Rifkin: as renewables are generally a distributed source of energy, all buildings may (...should, and will) become small power plants of their own, leveraging the locally available sources of energy.

Enjoy the reading!

Rifkin's TIR, pillar 1/5: shifting to renewables

Remember my first article on Jeremy Rifkin? I was announcing the follow ups and here is the first: details about the third industrial revolution's first pillar, shifting from fossil fuels and nuclear energy to renewable sources of energy.

Enjoy the reading!

Rifkin's Third Industrial Revolution

Today, I'd like to share one of my last readings. In his book "The third industrial revolution: how lateral power is transforming energy, the economy, and the world", Jeremy Rifkin offers us his vision on the way renewable energies on the one hand, and the internet on the other hand may/will radically transform the world as we know it in the next 50 years.

 

This article focuses on Jeremy Rifkin and the global theory he develops in the book. The five pillars he has identified for the "TIR" will be the subject of five coming articles.

Enjoy the reading!

Autolib', pour démarrer 2013 sur les chapeaux de roue

Meilleurs voeux pour 2013 !

Pour bien commencer l'année, je vous propose un article sur Autolib', dont les bluecars n'auront pas manqué d'interpeller les parisiens en 2012 et ne manqueront pas d'intéresser les autres. Le service proposé est en effet innovateur : alliant écologie et partage, deux nouvelles façons de penser qui s'ancrent de plus en plus dans les mentalités de demain.

Source : http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2012/01/02/01016-20120102ARTFIG00265-autolib-deja-victime-de-pannes-et-de-vandalisme.php

Bonne lecture !

Being green and green washing

Please go and read my last article on SolarKiosk as an example among others of situations where being green is not about brand marketing but about economical survival. It's on my new blog Energy in transition.

Micro-finance and access to energy in Peru

This article (in French), published on a Luxemburgish independant publishing media's website, allowed me to discover a project in Peru that is linked to all four thematics I blog about. It was therefore natural to write a post about this project.

The Energy Inclusion Initiative (EII) is the result of the partnership between MicroEnergy International (MEI), a small German firm, and ADA (Appui au Développement Autonome), a Luxemburgish NGO whose motto could be "Inclusive finance. Increasing autonomy. Improving lives.".
MicroEnergy International is specialized in the local micro-production of renewable energies and ADA in micro-finance as a means to empower the poor. Their fields are different but both organizations have the same purposes of global inclusion and economical autonomization. They joined in this project aiming at developing a business case for the implementation of microenergy solutions into micro-finance institutions' (MFI) portfolios.

Project phases

The first step of the Energy Inclusion Initiative was to identify the best place in the world to run the project, which would be a country with a high market potential for microenergy products. The Atlas ME, mapping the microenergy potential for each country, enabled the two partners to choose Peru in July 2010 for the following reasons:

• 1 person out of 5 has no access to electricity.
• Its exceptional annual sunshine rates: around 2300 KWh/m2 per annum, which is about twice the medium annual sunshine rates in Europe.

http://www.hespul.org/Le-rayonnement-solaire.html

• Microfinance is an already well-developped sector: the 3.2 billion micro-borrowers in Peru represent 10% of the population.

The next step was to go on-site and find partner MFIs who would be able to integrate energy loans into their portfolios. After meeting various MFIs and assessing their suitability against the selection criterias (among which were quantitative factors but also qualitative factors such as high motivation and commitment to the project), MicroEnergy International and ADA selected Caya Huancayo and Fondesurco.

Third, in October-November 2010, MEI and ADA have basically conducted a market study, focused on the usage, needs, expenses and costs of energy in the rural working areas of the partner MFIs. This led MEI and ADA to identify 3 main products suiting the population: solar water thermals, solar coffee dryers and improved cooking ovens.

By May 2011, a business plan had been developped with both MFIs and 3 phases of product implementation within the institutions’ portfolios had been identified:

• Pilot phase: May - December 2011
• Small-scale commercialization phase: 2012
• Large-scale commercialization phase: 2013 - 2014

Throughout the way, the GIZ EnDev accompanied the project by providing its technical expertise and advise.

What's the added-value ?

Since July 2011, 200 people have bought a solar water thermal, a solar coffee dryer or an improved cooking oven.
Those products improve the quality of life of individuals, and on the entrepreneurs' side, the benefit of the investment is quick to see: after buying a solar water thermal, an innkeeper, now offering hot water, could increase by 20% the night's price.

More broadly speaking, a project like this has advantages on many sides:

• On the ecological side: development of solutions for green sources of energy, implementation and research on best practices, etc.
• On the economical side: the homes and businesses equipped with these products reduce their costs and/or improve their revenues, enabling the businesses to re-invest in their activities or developping new ones. This is local and sustainable development.
• On the social side: the people benefitting from these micro-credits and/or from higher revenues access to higher standards of living, diversify their food supply, and improve their hygiene, which contributes to public health. For example, improved cooking ovens, by reducing and driving the cooking smoke outside of the house, improve the air quality in the home and lower cancer and other diseases risks.

What strikes me here? 

For me, this project is a powerful example of how micro-finance, renewable energies, social business and global interconnexion separately and synergically can transform people lives and make the world better.

It is here very understandable how micro-finance leverages financing capacities to make the borrower "become productive and independant", says Mia Adams-Bormans, founding member of ADA.
And I would add "included", because the micro-credit makes the person a borrower and an entrepreneur rather than a poor person trying to make ends meet in a rural and isolated area. It gives them a dignity that includes them in a global community. And don't take me wrong : I don't think these people deserve pity before they receive a micro-credit. On the contrary, I think they deserve a global community looking at them with respect and therefore offering micro-credit solutions rather than free well-thinking humanitarian aid.

You can also see in the Energy Inclusion Initiative how the caracteristics of renewable energies are used in a smart way. Sources of renewable energies are often spread and not concentrated (sun, wind, waterstreams, etc.). It is easy to collect them in small quantities about everywhere in the world. And those Peruvian entrepreneurs don't have access to energy (through the centralized energy grid) although their homeplace is in one of the most sunlit countries on Earth. So instead of connecting their isolated home to the electric grid, let's enable them to produce their own energy!

About global interconnexion, I just would like to pinpoint how international the project team is. The organizations come from Peru, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, the Netherlands... And I don't even speak about the individuals behind the organizations, who may have even more different nationalities and cultures. This would never have been possible without internet and more largely, all communication technologies that have developped in the last decennies.

Finally, I want to come back on the social aspect of the project. Although none of the actors are social entrepreneurs, the whole project is in the end about making business... in a social way. Because enabling those Peruvians homes and businesses to buy these products improve their day-to-day lives.

Cherbourg : n°1 de l'hydrolienne en Europe ?

Cherbourg est une ville que je connais pour y avoir vécu. Et bien que ce bout du monde nous semble fort lointain et ne paye pas vraiment de mine, il a de quoi surprendre les plus sceptiques. Ainsi en va-t'il de l'objet de cet article, que j'ai republié sur mon nouveau blog "Energy in transition" et que vous pouvez lire ici.

SolarKiosk : les énergies renouvelables comme moteur de développement économique

Depuis novembre 2011, l'entreprise allemande SolarKiosk commercialise des kiosques autonomes alimentés par des panneaux solaires. Ces kiosques sont des business unit autonomes : indépendants et mobiles, non-rattachés a un réseau électrique centralisé, on y vend des produits de première nécessité, de l'électricité et certains services.

Ils sont idéaux pour servir de relais dans les zones isolées et manquant d'infrastructures. Le marché principal de SolarKiosk est l'Afrique (la première filiale a ouvert en mars 2012 à Addis Abeba, en Ethiopie). En effet, dans les zones les plus isolées, les kiosques servent de point de rencontre et de commerce de "proximité" puisque pour un certain nombre de besoins de base, ils sont une alternative aux centres des villes, souvent plus éloignés (quelques jours de marche).

Les kiosques ont une deuxième fonction importante : ils permettent de fournir une activité qualifiée stable et un revenu régulier à un ménage local puisque les kiosques dont gérés par des locaux, qui bénéficient alors d'une nouvelle activité et d'une montée en compétence.

SolarKiosk, c'est donc oeuvrer pour un développement plus vert sur la base de sources d’énergie renouvelables et propres. C'est aussi oeuvrer pour l'inclusion des sociétés isolées et l'autonomisation économique des populations les plus défavorisées.

Cette initiative est pour moi une de celle qui nous montre les nouvelles façons de penser et de concevoir le monde qui vont s'imposer dans les décennies à venir.

De plus, comment rester insensible à un business model bien pensé comme celui-ci qui :

• puise dans les ressources abondantes :
• énergie solaire en Afrique,
• esprit d'entrepreneuriat dans ces communautés où chacun, agriculteur, éleveur, etc. est déjà souvent un entrepreneur
• pour pallier les problèmes de société :
• exclusion sociale,
• formation professionnelle limitée
• etc.
• et les manques en ce qui concerne les besoins primaires :
• la réfrigération permet de conserver certaines denrées et certains produits médicaux,
• la disponibilité de chargeurs téléphoniques et de cartes prépayées permet aux familles de faire fonctionner leur téléphone portable (ce n'est pas toujours su, mais les téléphones mobiles sont très répandus dans les pays en développement),
• etc.

Transition énergétique

Cet article résume et schématise un article de Didier Julienne publié récemment sur le blog Market-Makers de Les Echos. Initialement posté sur ce blog, j'ai reporté mon post sur mon nouveau blog Energy in transition. Vous pouvez désormais le lire ici.