Energy & Environment
Considered as “technologies of the future”, the production, distribution and storage of decarbonised energies are becoming a major challenge to meet the explosion in electricity needs, while respecting the commitments to reduce CO2 emissions.
In order to finance the heavy investments linked to the energy transition, the giants of the sector are selling off their non-strategic assets and beginning their transformation (example: Total Energies).
The programs for new nuclear reactors (SMR, EPR2, etc.) and green hydrogen are currently at the heart of R&D investments and will place a considerable burden on the engineering professions over the next ten years.
Market Trends
To contain global warming and greenhouse gas emissions, a radical diversification of energy production should be implemented that extends beyond electricity, in particular by decarbonizing heating and cooling networks and mobility
Currently, 80% of the global energy system is based on fossil resources (coal, oil and gas). The EU aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2030 in relation to the 1990 levels.
Challenges:
- Financing the development of renewable energies (photovoltaic, wind, biogas, etc.)
- Integrate energy storage solutions to overcome the intermittency of renewable energy production
- Design a new family of high-performance nuclear reactors, less expensive, and with optimized time to market
Digital technologies and data exploitation will profoundly change each link in the energy chain. The production engineer can now monitor and correct the drift of his processes in real time, the plant manager can obtain every evening an assessment of the complete economic performance of his plant, and the energy management authorities can optimize the day to day management of resources and the purchase of energy on the markets. These new challenges give a new and decisive role to the engineer at the heart of this transformation.
For example, intelligent demand management systems could provide approximately 185 GW of energy flexibility worldwide. This would save €270 billion in investment in new electricity infrastructure between 2016 and 2040.
Challenges:
- Deploy the architecture and control systems in existing plants
- Ensure Cybersecurity of the connected energy system
- Connect all transport networks to the delivery point
Economic and demographic growth is placing increasing pressure on energy, water and mineral resources. In parallel with the energy transition, new exploration, operations and recycling (at controlled cost) technologies will have to be implemented to extend access to these resources and optimise their consumption.
The United Nations anticipate a rise in the global population to 9.7 billion inhabitants by 2050. It will be necessary to triple the extraction of materials (namely180 billion tonnes/year) to meet this demand.
Challenges:
- Develop new exploration and operations technologies at controlled costs (e.g.: deep sea)
- Meet demand related to new uses (e.g.: cobalt/electric vehicles)
- Develop new waste sorting and recycling solutions
ALTEN VALUE PROPOSITION
Functional sectors
covered by ALTEN
New Nuclear Engineering
Operation & Maintenance in operational condition
Commissioning and entry into service
Dismantling and waste treatment
Transport and Distribution
Our Success Stories
Thanks to an increasingly competitive cost, wind has become one of the pillars of decarbonised energy production in the world. ALTEN supports a global leader in wind turbines in mechanical design, the definition of instrumentation-control laws, electro technical studies, software development and the analysis of host sites.
The maintenance and modernisation of nuclear plants (58 reactors in activity) is one of the major challenges of the energy sector in France. ALTEN is an essential player in the in-service support (ISS) engineering chain for many projects.
Deepwater offshore hydrocarbons currently concentrate about 30% of global conventional resources that remain to be discovered. Anotech Energy (specialist subsidiary of the ALTEN group) supports an operator and several equipment suppliers in the implementation of an innovative hydrocarbon project, the reserves of which are located at a water depth that may be as much as 1,950 metres.
According to the EPA (American Environmental Protection Agency), 30% of the energy used in a commercial or industrial building is wasted. To maximise the energy performance of buildings and industrial facilities, ALTEN supports a global leader in energy and services in the development and deployment of a FM (Facility Management) digital solution and CAM (Computer-Aided Maintenance Management) solution.
OUR CLIENTS
Energy suppliers
Shell, Total, EDF, ENI, Engie, Air Liquide…
Energy equipment manufacturers
GE, Siemens Energy, Schneider Electric, TechnipFMC, Orano, Framatome…
Are you interested in the Energy & Environment sector?
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