Sprinting Into An Integrated Cleantech Future
The future of transportation is electric. The future of energy is clean renewables. The future — and increasingly the present — also requires connecting these two. EDF is well on its way in this marathon into the coming decades, and I recently sat down with Raphael Declercq, Executive Vice President of Distributed Solutions at EDF Renewables North America, to talk about these matters and more. Tune in via the embedded SoundCloud player below or on Anchor, Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket, Podbean, Radio Public, SoundCloud, Spotify, or Stitcher.
If you’d like a little more info on what we talked about before listening, below is a summary of the topics. First, though, here’s a bit more about Raphael and his role at EDF to add a little context:
Raphael heads up EDF Renewables North America’s Distributed Solutions business unit. Alongside the president & CEO of the company, he crafts and implements the EDF Renewables strategy in North America. “Raphael has responsibility over the teams and legal entities conducting activities at the distribution level. Through a combination of acquisitions and internal growth, Raphael had a leading role in building the commercial solar, storage and smart electric vehicle charging business of EDF Renewables. He now oversees the operations of this fast-growing part of our business. In his strategy role, he has a focus on identifying growth opportunities for EDF Renewables businesses in North America.” Sounds like quite the platter of responsibilities!
Overall, EDF Group has approximately 150,000 employees worldwide and is a ~$20 billion EBITDA company. The energy and power giant is fully focused on decarbonization in this critical realm of the economy. Most of its new investments are in renewable energy, and all of the power supply it manages is zero-emissions (the company manages France’s extensive nuclear power fleet as well as many renewable energy projects).
A key focus area or solution for EDF Renewables at the moment is PowerFlex, which combines solar PV power, energy storage, and smart EV charging for its customers. One good thing is that the company is seeing a notable increase in customer interest in these matters as a larger and larger number of major companies as well as individuals catch word of record-low solar power prices, the value of integrated energy storage, and a new era of EV competitiveness.
PowerFlex is envisioned as the “one-stop shop” for commercial and industrial customers as it relates to electrification and decarbonization of energy. EDF is focused on both developing the software for these systems and outcompeting others in the implementation/installation of large projects. It brings with it years of experience serving remote islands, as well as exclusive rights to specific Caltech (California Institute of Technology) patents related to adaptive load management. Raphael claims that all of this allows EDF to be “extremely cost competitive” — for example, when it comes to implementation of numerous charging stations at a site.
Overall, the aim of business is often to achieve your objective at the lowest cost possible, and Raphael and I dove into how the company’s extensive integration of solar, storage, and EV charging at various levels provide the ability to scale more, and thus lower overall costs. Without a doubt, I would not like to go pitch implementation of one of these things alone after EDF just pitched its integrated solution.
We circled back to a discussion of what “adaptive load management” is, why it’s so important, and how it helps EDF to serve both EV drivers and the grid. We also covered resiliency and its increasing importance for C&I (commercial & industrial) customers. This includes the rollout of microgrids and dramatically cutting the use of diesel generators in those microgrids through smarter software.
And we touched on a key to the future for EDF as well as the future of the world: recruiting very high-quality personnel to work on these kinds of clean energy solutions rather than going into the consumer/web tech world of Apple, Google, Facebook, etc.
For much more, listen to the podcast!
In a joint statement, French and German economists have called on governments to adopt “a common approach” to decarbonize European trucking fleets – and they’re calling for a focus on fully electric trucks, not hydrogen.
France and Germany are the two largest economies in the EU, and they share similar challenges when it comes to freight decarbonization. The two countries also share a border, and the traffic between the two nations generates major cross-border flows that create common externalities between the two countries.
At the same time, the EU’s transport sector has struggled to reduce emissions at the same rate as other industries – and road freight in particular is a major contributor to harmful carbon emissions issue due to that industry’s heavy reliance on diesel-powered trucks.
And for once, it seems like rail isn’t a viable option:
While rail remains competitive mainly for heavy, homogeneous goods over long distances. Most freight in Europe is indeed transported over distances of less than 200 km and involves consignment weights of up to 30 tonnes (GCEE, 2024) In most such cases, transportation by rail instead of truck is not possible or not competitive. Moreover, taking into account the goods currently transported in intermodal transport units over distances of more than 300 km, the modal shift potential from road to rail would be only 6% in Germany and less than 2% in France.
That leaves trucks – and, while numerous government incentives currently exist to promote the parallel development of both hydrogen and battery electric vehicle infrastructures, the study is clear in picking a winner.
“Policies should focus on battery-electric trucks (BET) as these represent the most mature and market-ready technology for road freight transport,” reads the the FGCEE statement. “Hence, to ramp-up usage of BET public funding should be used to accelerate the roll-out of fast-charging networks along major corridors and in private depots.”
The appeal was signed by the co-chair of the advisory body on the German side is the chairwoman of the German Council of Economic Experts, Monika Schnitzer. Camille Landais co-chairs the French side. On the German side, the appeal was signed by four of the five experts; Nuremberg-based energy economist Veronika Grimm (who also sits on the National Hydrogen Council, which is committed to promoting H2 trucks and filling stations) did not sign.
You can read an English version of the CAE FGCEE joint statement here.
Electrek’s Take
MAN Trucks’ CEO famously said that it was “impossible” for hydrogen to compete with BEVs, and even committed to building 200 hydrogen-powered semi truck to prove out that hypothesis.
He’s not alone. MAN’s board member for research and development, Frederik Zohm, said that the company is the one saying hydrogen still has years to go. “(MAN) continues to research fuel cell technology based on battery electrics,” he said, in a statement quoted by Hydrogen Insight, before another board member added that, “we (MAN) expect that, in the future, we will be able to best serve the vast majority of our customers’ transport applications with battery-electric trucks.”
With companies like Volvo and Renault and now Mercedes racking up millions of miles on their respective battery electric semi truck fleets, it’s no longer even close. EV is the way.
SOURCE | IMAGES: CAE FGCEE; via Electrive.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
GE Vernova has produced over half the turbines needed for SunZia Wind, which will be the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere when it comes online in 2026.
GE Vernova has manufactured enough turbines at its Pensacola, Florida, factory to supply over 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of the turbines needed for the $5 billion, 2.4 GW SunZia Wind, a project milestone. The wind farm will be sited in Lincoln, Torrance, and San Miguel counties in New Mexico.
At a ribbon-cutting event for Pensacola’s new customer experience center, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik noted that since 2023, the company has invested around $70 million in the Pensacola factory.
The Pensacola investments are part of the announcement GE Vernova made in January that it will invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities over the next two years to help meet the surging electricity demands globally. GE Vernova says it’s expecting its investments to create more than 1,500 new US jobs.
Vic Abate, CEO of GE Vernova Wind, said, “Our dedicated employees in Pensacola are working to address increasing energy demands for the US. The workhorse turbines manufactured at this world-class factory are engineered for reliability and scalability, ensuring our customers can meet growing energy demand.”
SunZia Wind and Transmission will create US history’s largest clean energy infrastructure project.
Read more: The largest clean energy project in US history closes $11B, starts full construction
If you live in an area that has frequent natural disaster events, and are interested in making your home more resilient to power outages, consider going solar and adding a battery storage system. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. They have hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisers to help you every step of the way. Get started here. –trusted affiliate link*
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports12 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway