Can the energy transition succeed ?

Europe’s goal for 2050 is to move towards a low-car­bon world. “Glo­bal war­ming is expec­ted to reach 1.5 degrees by 2030, and pro­ba­bly over 3 degrees or even 3.5 degrees by 2100, so we’ll soon be at unma­na­geable tem­pe­ra­tures,” says Oli­vier Sala, vice-pre­sident in charge of research and inno­va­tion at Engie. “The urgent situa­tion we face on cli­mate change means we can’t wait any lon­ger. But after decades of cli­mate denial, we shouldn’t give in to des­pon­den­cy. We have a duty to be opti­mis­tic, and to take action.”

So how best to go about it ? First­ly, by redu­cing our ener­gy consump­tion at a Euro­pean level by at least 30–50%. This requires poli­cies that encou­rage ener­gy suf­fi­cien­cy. Second­ly, by swit­ching to elec­tri­ci­ty for as many of our acti­vi­ties as pos­sible, using decar­bo­ni­sed, rene­wable ener­gy sources such as wind and solar power. Third­ly, the use of low-car­bon mole­cules, either of bio­lo­gi­cal ori­gin (food or agri­cul­tu­ral waste, for example), or pro­du­ced from hydro­gen. Unlike hydro­gen pro­du­ced from hydro­car­bons, hydro­gen obtai­ned from the elec­tro­ly­sis of water is non-polluting.

“If we want emis­sions with zero car­bon foot­print, the CO₂ emit­ted must come from bio­ge­nic sources, such as metha­ni­za­tion, a tech­no­lo­gy based on the break­down of orga­nic mat­ter by micro-orga­nisms, under control­led condi­tions and in the absence of oxy­gen,” conti­nues Oli­vier Sala. “Ano­ther pos­si­bi­li­ty is to cap­ture CO₂ from the air. Major invest­ments are being made in this tech­no­lo­gy, but they won’t bear fruit for at least ano­ther ten years.”

Which of these ave­nues is Engie pur­suing ? They’re all inter­es­ting, but they need to be stu­died toge­ther, because there won’t be a miracle solu­tion for decar­bo­ni­zing our emis­sions, but a varie­ty of tech­ni­cal solu­tions that need to be com­bi­ned accor­ding to local situa­tions. The chal­lenge is also to streng­then Europe’s abi­li­ty to pro­cure the raw mate­rials nee­ded to manu­fac­ture com­po­nents (cobalt and lithium in par­ti­cu­lar) and to encou­rage indus­trial inno­va­tion in these new energies.

After Ger­ma­ny and Ita­ly, France is the third-lar­gest pro­du­cer of solar ener­gy, but solar power only accounts for 3% of French ener­gy consump­tion, so there’s plen­ty of room for growth in this sec­tor. This can be achie­ved not only by mul­ti­plying the num­ber of pho­to­vol­taic panels, but also by diver­si­fying the sur­faces on which they can be ins­tal­led, and of course by impro­ving their per­for­mance. Jor­di Bado­sa, Research Direc­tor at École Poly­tech­nique (IP Paris) and Tech­ni­cal Direc­tor of the Centre Inter­dis­ci­pli­naire Energie4Climate (E4C), is wor­king on this very subject.

At the SIRTA atmos­phe­ric research obser­va­to­ry, he is deve­lo­ping expe­ri­men­tal ins­tru­men­tal plat­forms to test condi­tions that are more or less favo­rable to pho­to­vol­taic panel ener­gy pro­duc­tion. The aim is to deploy solar ener­gy on a mas­sive scale across a dis­trict or city.

New ave­nues are being explo­red, such as agri-vol­taics, which involves com­bi­ning solar ener­gy pro­duc­tion with agri­cul­tu­ral pro­duc­tion. Ins­tal­la­tions are being tes­ted above crops that need lit­tle sun­light (par­ti­cu­lar­ly let­tuce), with panels that can be adjus­ted to let in more or less light depen­ding on the time of day and the time of year. In the event of drought, such panels can also pro­tect the soil from eva­po­ra­tion. Lakes would also be good places to ins­tall solar panels, because the war­mer they are, the less ener­gy they pro­duce. Floa­ting, they bene­fit from a natu­ral cooling effect. 

Signi­fi­cant pro­gress has also been made in recy­cling the various mate­rials that make up pho­to­vol­taic panels, which are now 90% recy­clable – an essen­tial fac­tor when consi­de­ring sus­tai­nable technologies.

The issue of the inter­mit­ten­cy of solar ener­gy remains. But in addi­tion to the research being car­ried out on sto­rage, Jor­di Bado­sa agrees with Oli­vier Sala that the future lies in an ener­gy mix that includes solu­tions based on green hydrogen. 

Final­ly, if the ener­gy tran­si­tion is to suc­ceed, “these ener­gies will have to be not only accep­ted but, above all, desi­red by consu­mers”, concludes Oli­vier Sala.

Marina Julienne