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#1 Low Pressure Hydrogen Storage (McPhy Energy) - 1 / 5
Concept: McPhy Energy proposes a device for storing hydrogen in solid form using magnesium hydrides, a technology developed by the Institut Néel at CNRS Grenoble. This is large stationary storage, with containers accepting 100 kg of hydrogen, and soon 500 kg.
Team: Pascal Mauberger, previously CEO of Soitec, chairs the company since 2009. Beside him, historical founders Daniel Fruchart, specialist in intermetallic alloys, and Michel Jehan, head of an industrial SME of magnesium powders and granulates. The company born in 2008 has 50 employees, a design office in Grenoble, a factory in Drôme and a German subsidiary headed by Roland Kaeppner, former Vice President of Siemens.
Market: McPhy Energy won a large contract in Italy for a 39 megawatt-hours demonstrator for photovoltaic and wind energy storage. The company is positioning itself in the industrial hydrogen market, distributed until now under pressure by truck. Its solution for the production of hydrogen by electrolysis of water and low-pressure storage limits the carbon impact and allows manufacturers to overcome external logistics.
Outlook: The 2013 program will require a tour de table and will be responsible for: establishing the three-eight at the plant; continue research to increase the size of products and lower production costs; develop other hydrides for seasonal long-term storage; and successfully deploy an integrated solution with storage and generator electrolysis.
#2 Step Turbine (HydroQuest) - 2 / 5
Concept: For those who are not skilled in the art, nothing looks more like a tidal turbine of rivers and rivers than another tidal turbine of rivers and rivers. Let us indicate that the HydroQuest one has a vertical axis and transverse flow, and that it is equipped with an "Achard" turbine. And let's talk about its main advantages: high energy performance, due to a fairing that accelerates the speed of water flow; the modularity of its tiered system, allowing it to be adapted to the depth of the water; and a patented anchoring system on a floating barge, thanks to which it is easily raised to a horizontal position for maintenance. In less than an hour it rises to the surface.
Team: At the helm, Jean-François Simon (president) and Thomas Jacquier (technical director). In addition, there are four advisors, including Jean-Luc Achard (CNRS Grenoble), the main inventor of the Harvest concept (acronym for a tidal turbine with stabilized vertical rotation axis).
Market: The company's objective is to design, manufacture and sell tidal turbine parks. The world market "rivers and estuaries" is estimated at 10 billion euros by 2025. Regulatory problems limit the potential on the side of industrialized countries. So, Hydro West plans to achieve 80% of its turnover in Bric and sub-Saharan Africa. Its solution is particularly suited to emerging countries, because the cities are located there along waterways.
Outlook: Current 2013, Hydroquest technology will be the first tested in Bordeaux on the test platform for turbines estuarine financed by the Grand Emprunt.
#3 The hydrogen fuel cell (SymbioFCell) - 3 / 5
Concept: What is the common point between the Kangoo ZE, Renault's electric utility, and the GreenGT H2 sports car that will race the next 24 Hours of Le Mans? They are equipped with SymbioFCell H2 batteries designed from CEA fuel cell technology. Why hybridize Kangoo with a hydrogen fuel cell? Because the atmospheric conditions and the cycles of use make vary from 1 to 4 the autonomy displayed on the card manufacturer.
Team: The four founders are Fabio Ferrari (from telecoms), Pierre-Yves Le Berre and Didier Belin (software specialists) and Luc Rouveyre (fuel cell specialist). The company has achieved 1,5 million euros of turnover in 2011.
Market: SymbioFCell approaches the automotive market with a "retrofit" logic. The customer wishing for additional autonomy can purchase the extension kit which fits into the vehicle without impacting its architecture. Such hybrid Kangoo have already been delivered to the chemist Solvay. The start-up's solution adapts to the professional vehicle market or for communities, because these vehicles regularly return to their base where small hydrogen charging stations are deployed. Another market: the navy, for propulsion and for auxiliary electrical power (navigation systems, cabin electricity, etc.).
Outlook: The success of the system is based on mass production with cost reduction. Hence the assembly of a production line, the first in Europe, on the Grenoble site of Siemens Energy. Objective 2014 for SymbioFCell: sell several thousand kits.
#4 Photovoltaic ovens (ECM Technologies) - 4 / 5
Concept: Wafers, the silicon wafers that form crystalline solar panels, are made from silicon ingots produced in large vacuum furnaces, with ever more advanced properties. ECM Technologies is now offering a version to produce 800 kg ingots (versus 450 kg for those currently produced).
Team: Laurent Pélissier has taken the helm of the 140 2008 SME and has relaunched on this occasion the photovoltaic activity, abandoned by a previous shareholder. In the 1980 years, the company was already developing with Photowatt the first generation of ovens.
Market: Despite a market in crisis, ECM is also positioning itself on the sale of turnkey factories to manufacture wafers to countries wishing to set up a sector so as not to be dependent on imports. His first order? A plant of 70 megawatts in Kazakhstan. A subsidiary, ECM Green Tech, is being created for this activity, which will eventually generate 300 million euros in annual sales. Historically a manufacturer of industrial furnaces for heat treatment, ECM Technologies is always addressing automotive market with furnaces that allow vacuum processing of gearbox gears. The company works with Nissan, Fiat, Ford, PSA ... This activity earns 35 million euros of annual turnover.
Outlook: The company is also part of the consortium PV800 Export, funded by ADEME, which aims to set up a sector of French equipment manufacturers on the near-monocrystalline silicon technology, resulting from the recycling of sawmill waste.
#5 Energy Efficiency Software (Vesta System) - 5 / 5
Concept: The building sector represents approximately 43% of energy consumption and would generate 23% of greenhouse gases. Intelligent energy management of buildings is therefore a priority. The Vesta System software solution minimizes environmental costs, while maintaining consumer comfort. It takes into account various factors such as the weather, energy network shedding times, uses and preferences of the occupants. It manages different energy sources, arbitrates their use or storage. From his smartphone or tablet, the occupant keeps control of heating, air conditioning, heat pump, flap opening, etc.
Team: Xavier Brunotte, doctor in electrical engineering, leads the start-up that came into being as a result of the Multisol project funded by the National Research Agency. The technology comes from laboratories G2ELab and G-Scop Grenoble INP.
Market: The company targets the collective housing and tertiary building markets. Its module comes with the tools of GTB (building management). The individual home market could be tackled in a second time, as part of positive energy buildings that will become the norm in 2020.
Outlook: 2013 should be dedicated to working on the ease of deployment of the solution. Vesta System has just won the short-term 2012 Feasibility Award for EDF's Intelligent Energy Competition. The company was also noticed while providing the manager of the Canopea house, which won the Solar Decathlon Europe, a variation of the international university competition of the US Department of Energy.
