EDM launches the first solar power station in the Alpes-Maritimes Department

by Dominique THIBAULT

Subject to the European directive on renewable energies, electricity company EDM (Electricité de Marseille) is planning to build an electric power plant and a 60,000-square-meter grid energy storage facility. The first experimental solar power station should be set up in the countryside just inland of Nice next autumn. The founding team introduced its prototype and its business model at the Sophia Antipolis forum last July 7. The aim of this ambitious project is to make up for the flaws and dependence of the regional electric grid, and also offer an attractive alternative to fossil energy.

According to the World Energy Council, worldwide electric-power consumption is growing twice as fast as that of other types of energy. Given that the world's population will reach 2.6 billion by 2050, it is clear that renewable energies are going to play a vital role in this global energy transitional phase over the short term. With these prospects, France - which is seeing an annual increase in its electric-power consumption of 1.7% on average - is planning to produce 22% of its electricity using renewable energy sources by 2010, thereby complying with the Kyoto objectives. These are to decrease greenhouse gas emission by 50% by 2010. The market may be turning out to be profitable for producers and end-customer suppliers, but for both electric-grid managers that are operating the transmission/distribution channels and new market players such as the energy regulating commission CRE or Powernext, the French electricity stock exchange, the stakes are above all the environmental, social and economic consequences for future generations! Senator Pierre Laffitte, who along with his counterpart Claude Saunier, presented an eloquent parliamentary report on the subject in June 2006, is sounding the alarm: "The cost of climate change in 2050, according to a German consulting firm, will be (the low estimate) 2000 billion [dollars] for the United States, or 6% of global GNP" - adding that locally, "with the project for EDF's Boutre-Carros line being cancelled, the Department absolutely must develop thermal insulation and lower its power consumption!" But the message is not getting across, in spite of the laudable efforts of the Alpes-Maritimes regional councils, which are helping to finance the renewable energy facilities (up to 80% for the solar thermal pumps). In 2005, there were only 1936 subsidy applications, and only 293 of these in the Alpes-Maritimes, showing that in spite of the urgency, people are slow to wake up and the market is far from reaching maturity. EDM is not alarmed by this heavy constraint, and says it can use its responsiveness and its different "energy mix" systems to meet the strictest of specifications.

A mix of hybrid solutions for a revolutionary technology

The electricity company EDM (Electricité de Marseille, SA), with registered capital of 400 000 euros, was founded in May 1985 by Pierre Bénaros and is now established in Sophia Antipolis. To reach its objectives, EDM is employing an original solution it is developing in synergy with the Théolia Company, a renewable energy producer based in Aix-en-Provence that owns 20% of EDM's shares. Its innovative technology is based on Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES), a system that is used by Huntorf in Germany and by McIntosh in Alabama in the United States. The compressed air is stored and then released to produce electricity. This system can be coupled to a solar thermal system. Seven 4,850-cubic-meter spheres made of composite materials store the air, which is compressed at 120 bar using an electric compressor. Solar thermal panels 10,000 square meters in surface produce hot water that is used to increase the pressure of the stored air up to 600 bar for 40% more capacity. During peaks in power consumption, the compressed air is released, driving a turbine that can produce 40 MW of electricity, summer or winter. The solar power station will be installed on an 18-hectare plot of land in the Tournefort district and connected to the Courbaisse hydroelectric power station. It should be operational by the end of 2009. "The idea took root in 2001," explains EDM's CEO, Pierre Bénaros. "We noticed that operators made errors in supply readjustment during peaks, and decided to compensate by building high-power regulating power plants based on a three-phase system: air compression, storage in a high-capacity salt mine and release assisted by heat that is provided by natural gas. For example, for air at 10o, it is possible to store 360 tons of compressed air, or 25 MW of electric power production! Our business strategy is based on buying electricity during periods of excess production at lower cost (5-30€ a MWh), storing it during off-peak hours in spherical tanks and selling it during peak consumption (50-90€ a MWh)."

What are the advantages for the end consumer? Offhand, there are many, and these come without further complications. Briefly, these would be a lower bill for the same quality and quantity, without outages (thanks to relay back-up supply) and with EDM picking up any overcosts due to unexpected customer consumption.
On July 7, a lively demonstration given by Pierre Bénaros explained the system. The prototype runs on a 15-MW "hydrospherical" engine and operates like a paddle wheel, with turbine blades turning in the water thanks to an injection of air under pressure and to buoyancy.

Solar power station project in Brittany

At the same time, EDM put in a tender for the construction of a 120-MW electric power plant in Brittany. The plant is to be coupled to a biomass centre near Saint-Brieuc. Both facilities would operate either simultaneously or individually as a function of the electricity needs of the backer, the RTE Company, which manages the French power transmission network. The "hybrid biomass" unit consists of a NordFab boiler connected up to a steam turbine that supplies 80 MW five months out of the year. This would be fed by fuels (23,000 metric tons (MT) of canola seed, 18,000 MT of wood and 15,000 MT of straw) supplied by farms in the area of Plaine-Haute, a commune in the Côtes d'Armor Department. Whatever the outcome of the tender, EDM is thinking of establishing a solar power station and has just signed a sales agreement for the purchase of an eleven-hectare plot of land near a 400,000-volt line. "In that event," explains Pierre Bénaros, "our objective will be to build a 40-MW compressed-air solar station, possibly in combination with biomass, that will be capable of supplying 40 MW for five hours a day, or 200 MWh per day all year round." Construction should begin by the end of 2007, with operation beginning during the first quarter of 2010.
As for the budget, EDM estimates that so far, it has invested about 700,000 euros in R&D investment over the past year to launch its prototype. The company hopes to wrap up a 20-million-euro fund-raising campaign so as to polish its offer and, during the ramp-up phase for its fleet of stations, be able to depend on commercializing power supply contracts. The company is targeting the professional market starting in 2007, and also the end-consumer market starting in July 2007, which is when the European household markets open.

This initiative offers the territorial authorities a cost-effective alternative, as long as they are able to overcome the "fossil-fuel inertia" in their citizens' way of thinking. However it might develop in future, the new solution unquestionably has the merit, as Senator Pierre Lafitte concluded in his report, of opening up a new frontier leading to a more reasonable consumption of our energy sources in the third millennium!