The engineer at the heart of the energy transition
At the beginning of September, on the eve of the great climate march, more than 700 French scientists signed a petition-column in the newspaper Libération calling on politicians to act. According to them, within the ongoing energy transition, a list of available solutions already exists: "reducing energy consumption, using decarbonised energies, better building insulation, rethinking mobility to avoid combustion engines, rail freight…" Should we conclude from this that the destiny of the energy transition is already mapped out?
An unfinished process
Public opinion sometimes naively believes that a list of "ready-to-use" solutions for the energy transition already exists — that all one needs to do is roll out the red carpet for innovations to revolutionise our world, with objects and systems using renewable energies simply parading before us. If one considers a strategic concept such as the electric car, for example, the figures quickly bring us back to reality: of the 97 million new cars sold worldwide in 2018, barely more than 1.1 million were electric vehicles. True, there is exponential year-on-year growth in sales (over 60% between 2016 and 2017), but the figure is still very low. Elon Musk managed to capture the imagination of the entire world by sending a Tesla into space; alas, his company is still not profitable. To launch his audacious project, the world's most famous American engineer — having first invested his own funds — was able to take advantage of the generosity of the Obama government in 2009, which was firmly committed to encouraging renewable energies. And a question arises: where would this project be without those subsidies?
Finally, the electric vehicle, far from having given a clean bill of health from an ecological standpoint, frequently comes under fire from critics. In France, for example, a report by the Environment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe) attracted considerable attention in 2016. It notes that "the electric car consumes less energy than a combustion vehicle [petrol or diesel], because its drivetrain has excellent energy efficiency. Despite this, over its entire life cycle, the energy consumption of an electric vehicle is broadly similar to that of a diesel vehicle." The cause of this paradox, according to experts, is that battery manufacturing is extremely energy-intensive.
Through this contrasting picture, we can see clearly that, despite all the hope it generates (according to a recent survey, 85% of motorists believe in the future of the electric vehicle), the destiny of this concept more closely resembles a long and winding road than a motorway. And the same is true of the energy transition as a whole. There is no shortage of scientific articles criticising the environmental record of wind turbines or solar panels; many solutions prima facie validated as part of the "energy transition" remain highly controversial, given that a large number of so-called renewable energies currently only function because they are subsidised. Yet rising fuel prices at the pump remind us that we need to accelerate. Indeed, as global experts have been forecasting for years, the availability of fossil fuels is not guaranteed indefinitely — and yet they still account for 85% of primary energy supply today.
Renewables across four major construction sites
It is on this tortuous and obstacle-strewn path that the engineer steps in to take charge of the energy transition. Getting straight to the heart of the matter, their objective is to translate scientists' visions into reality by giving substance to the four major pillars of renewable energy: "create", "transport", "store", and "use". For each of these action verbs, the engineer innovates and seeks solutions that are far from being predetermined. They must proceed by trial and error, establish innovation pathways, build prototypes, and think about industrialisation. For example, finding new processes to generate energy by improving the efficiency of solar panels, wind turbines, or geothermal systems. In the context of hydroelectric projects, they may also work on the development of mini hydrogen power plants. With regard to transport, the challenge is to generate energy that will be consumed on-site and to improve the efficiency of systems while reducing losses. Their involvement in storage systems is equally strategic, requiring arbitration between the options of preserving and improving battery performance and lifespan (BMS), or even generating energy on demand.
Finally, regarding the use of these technologies, the engineer seeks to improve user interfaces by providing solutions to optimise consumption, develop on-demand systems (to avoid transmission losses), or achieve ultra-low energy consumption. They also reflect on insulation solutions (optimisation of electric heating), while taking into account the recycling of new items (such as solar panels). For each of these four pillars, the engineer must take into account certain imperatives: controlling consumption, recycling, planned obsolescence, and designing repairable products.
This non-exhaustive list gives a sense of the tasks that fall to the engineer in the energy transition project, mapping out the main axes of development. It is clear that their role is at least as essential as that of the politician. Thanks to their work, far from being a list of "magic words", the energy transition can become a very concrete reality — one that demands expertise and mastery of numerous interdisciplinary technologies. And as uses improve, our civilisation will come to realise that it is at the price of these less energy-hungry innovations that it will be able to continue advancing in the spirit of the Enlightenment.
