GROWING ELECTRICAL NEEDS

Carbon neutrality by 2050 requires the replacement of fossil fuels by cleaner energy. Of the 1,600-terawatt hours consumed in France today, the lion’s share comes from fossil fuels and 25% from electricity. “Even by reducing our consumption by 40%, reliance on electricity will grow (55%)”, announced Gilles Odone, RTE Méditerranée Representative. The body has studied possible means of supplying this electricity and has come up with 14 different scenarios. If France opts to phase out nuclear energy and reaches 100% renewable energies in 2050, “from an electrical point of view, it’s possible, but you would need 21 times more solar panels, 4 times more on-shore wind farms and you would have to install 62 giga watt of offshore wind farms”. RTE has contemplated a scenario with 50% nuclear and 50% renewable energies and another which combines 26% nuclear with renewable energies. “All the scenarios devised are electrically sound. The higher the proportion of renewable energies used, the more networks will be required, as we will have a greater reliance on neighbouring countries”, warns Gilles Odone.

Prosnow helps users to produce the right quantity of snow at the right moment. It is an interactive web interface financed by Europe and designed by 13 scientific partners, including Météo France and Dianeige and 9 German, Swiss, Austrian, Italian and French pilot resorts. The tool supplies ski area operators with daily or seasonal forecasts for the whole resort or a particular sector. Its little brother, Tipsnow, developed by Météo France and Dianeige, helps users to know if, with a given stock of snow, a resort can hold on until the end of the holidays or the end of the season.

Tipsnow lets users know if the quantity of snow will be enough to last until the end of the season.

By 2050, will the 30 million electric vehicles on the market be manageable?

If everyone charges their cars at the same time in the future and in the same area, it could prove problematic. Consuming at the right time is key. The aVEnir scheme, managed by Enedis on behalf of Ademe, and in collaboration with Grenoble and Aix-Marseille Universities, is making plans for the large-scale deployment of a smart charging scheme for electric vehicles and the required flexibility this implies.

The 10 million Euro project is based on the study of 12 sites in real conditions –public highways, residential areas and tertiary use sites – and an analysis of 42 surveys on user behaviour. It covers a large portion of the mobility ecosystem: Enedis, car manufacturers, terminal manufacturers, energy suppliers, terminal operators, etc. “Flexibility, means charging your vehicle at the most appropriate time, for example when there is excess local solar panel production, or plugging it in for longer. Users must be informed in advance and there should be incentive-based pricing”, suggests Frédéric Rychen, Professor at the Economy and Management Faculty of Aix-Marseille University. “Cars can also be discharged to feed into the system in the case of a consumption peak”, adds Gilles Odone, RTE Méditerranée representative.

A snow groomer is designed for use on snow, not on other surfaces, which could cause damage to its drive belt. IDM has designed ColorLine, a winter/summer drive belt which meets climate challenges and the diversification of activities. Its aluminium and polyurethane strips enable use on hard and soft snow, earth and concrete, for exiting a garage, crossing roads, grooming shallow depths of snow and climbing any type of sloping terrain. All while moving snow efficiently, which remains its primary function!

“Given the weight of batteries electrical vehicles contain, you need a local electron to feed it, not one which has travelled 400 km, otherwise you are missing the point”, explains Stéphane Raizin, General Manager of Territoire d’Énergie des HautesAlpes. Consuming electricity produced locally means gaining from losses, generally speaking.

“But you shouldn’t depend entirely on local production, as this would require an increased number of production systems. To power a household, you need a large number of solar panels, or even batteries to power it at night, which means a significant investment. Pooling is useful. We must, of course, vary types of energy: wind power, solar panels and hydroelectric. Today, production is very centralised, but gradually it is becoming more decentralised”, points out Gilles Odone, RTE Méditerranée representative.

During the Skiing World Cup, organised in Flachau, Austria, Italian snow groomer manufacturer, Prinoth presented the world’s first snow groomer with a hydrogen engine, the Leithwolf h2 Motion, equipped with an internal combustion engine by Italian group, FTP Industrial, the XC 13. It is a flexible multi-fuel engine, designed using a unique base. The hydrogen version engine, with a capacity of 13 litres and six cylinders, delivers power of 460 hp (338 kW) and 2000 Nm of torque. The hydrogen is stored in five tanks located to the rear of the snow groomer and gives more than three hours of autonomy.

The Leithwolf h2 Motion, which is still in the testing phase, has not yet been put on the market.

WE HEAR FROM

“An electric vehicle is a battery on four wheels, which can prove useful for households. It contains the equivalent of five days’ power consumption of the average household – more than sufficient to cope with peaks”.

Stéphane Raizin, General Manager of Territoire d’Énergie des Hautes-Alpes

Upgradeability, adaptability, sustainability, simplicity… Because it is committed to reducing Man’s environmental footprint, POMA channels the best of its innovation into a selection of evermore efficient, environmentally friendly products and services.

The Group is committed to a Sustainable approach known as LIFE R’way (Low Impact For the Environment), in which the following areas of improvement are now under way: Less raw materials, less energy in the manufacturing processes, short supply chains, increased worker safety with less consumables and less impact on the construction site, reduced energy consumption, recyclability or recovery at end of life.

Let’s take a look at the solutions POMA provides to promote soft, sustainable mobility.

• UP TO 20% ENERGY SAVINGS WITH ECODRIVE, which regulates the speed of aerial lifts automatically based on the number of passengers, ensuring minimal energy consumption. ECODRIVE is 100 % configurable and lets you track energy savings via an interface with the SKADII digital services platform.

• INNOVATIVE LINERS CODEVELOPED BY POMA AND MICHELIN offer an efficient solution throughout their life cycle. Up to 10% energy savings generated thanks to a low rolling resistance, a 100 % longer shelf life, a low-carbon manufacturing process made in France by MICHELIN, bio-sourced materials, the end of their life taken in charge for recycling... Products will be available in the course of 2023 for an increasingly sustainable mobility!

• THE POWER OPTION, A SOLAR SOLUTION thanks to innovative semi-rigid solar panels installed in station covering and which surface has been specially designed to optimise the performance of the solar cells. The POWER option now available for the roofing of the new LIFE station is setting even higher standards, by increasing energy production by 28 %. The modules are also “PV CYCLE” certified, meaning they have been approved by an international organisation that manages module end of life and recycling.

www.poma.net

Is the sum invested in 2022 in French ski areas. An increase of 41.8% with regard to the previous season and 17.1% higher than the ten yearly average, the amount is the highest this decade. In France this year, operators reinvested 26.1% of their turnover before taxes.

Savings of fuel, CO2, water and electricity and boosted productivity are all offered by the technology developed by Snowsat, which has been adopted, amongst others, by Alpe d’Huez resort. Thanks to an onboard GPS in their snow groomer, the driver has precise knowledge of the thickness of the snow coverage beneath their vehicle and even up to 50 m ahead or to the sides, on a surface area of up to 2,600 m² with SNOWsat LiDAR. They can therefore optimise grooming, move snow in a precise manner, create a uniform slope, including when there is little available snow, and maximise the number of skiable days. Another corollary advantage is that the data on snowfall enables more accurate planning of artificial snow production.

Last year at the Mountain Planet Fair, Romain Dupon, who helms CM Dupon in Pontcharra (Isère), presented the world’s first fully electric snow groomer of a standard size, designed upon request by the Compagnie des Alpes (CDA). Tested in La Plagne last winter after two years of work, the preproduction model of the Alpine B400 was on the snow this winter to validate its industrialisation prior to commercialisation.

The manufacturer is in discussions with several French and foreign resorts to deploy the model. The electric snow groomer, which can be fully recharged in just two hours, boasts an autonomy of six hours, an energy yield twice as high as that of a combustion-powered vehicle, instant traction power and a longer operating life, estimated at 10 years compared with 7 years on average for a combustion-powered snow groomer. While it is more expensive to buy, it works out as being less so if operating expenses are considered. “The machine is simpler to maintain because there are no high-pressure hydraulics. It can also be retrofitted”, explains Romain Dupon.

Continually searching for new methods of decarbonisation, the CDA asked CM Dupon to develop a H2 range extender, a hydrogen motor, that the operator will test out in 2024 in one of its resorts.