The Renewable Energies trade fair of Perpignan:
Derbi 2007 leaves its mark on time

The beautiful Catalan city of Perpignan located in the Eastern Pyrenees, in the heart of the Languedoc Roussillon region, woke up this beautiful Thursday, May 31, 2007 to the pleasant commotion of a special event.

BY Veronica Davies

Indeed, the Renewable Energies trade faire organized by the Derbi competitiveness hub opened its doors to more than 800 participants, exhibitors and speakers who came to discuss, present, and explain, during 3 days, the development of Renewable New Energies. The round tables all discussed a specific topic reflecting a top priority such as for instance climatic change: present state of things, emergency, or more realistically, with the involvement of energy operators and professional networks: which strategies? Without forgetting the institutional investors who must also provide an answer: what is their vision for the future? The participants who were present in large numbers and actively took part in the various debates were obviously concerned by and interested in these issues. The speakers were of very great quality, with a perfect command of their subject, always responding with conclusive details and giving the simplest possible explanations, so as to be easily understood by everyone. We will not name the speakers, as we fear we may forget some and this would not be fair, but they all contributed effectively to the admirable success of this event. Also it is necessary to add the various parallel workshops dealing with subjects more directed towards technology such as the Photovoltaic Workshop, organized in partnership with the Rhône Alpes Tennerrdis hub, the Biomasses Workshop in partnership with Capenergies from the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, or the Wind and Thermal Solar Energy Workshop, and finally the topic of any essential project: the financing of renewable energies projects. Based on this display of competences, one understands better why the International Conference Derbi 2007 mobilized the actors of the economy and the institutional decision makers.

Accelerating innovation, pooling active energies to create jobs

For the second consecutive year, this event demonstrates on the one hand the will of the organizers to introduce into their Languedoc Roussillon region, with full force and perennially, this new creative employment channel by creating a stronghold for Renewable New Energies, particularly solar energy, and on the other hand, their determination to promote an opening with the other competitiveness hubs, Capenergies of the Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur and Tenerrdis representing the Rhône Alpes region, both present at the trade fair. Andre Joffre, the President of Derbi and of the Chamber of Commerce of Perpignan, confidently states that it is necessary to build a synergy between industries, companies, building and public works, academics, research and financers, to ensure success. One must recognize that things are progressing well since, in 2006, there were 33 retained labelled projects, with 10 million Euros obtained to finance the projects from regional and national subsidies thanks to the competitiveness hubs. This is a very positive statement for the Languedoc Roussillon, where the Regional Council opened an envelope of 16 million Euros to finance renewable energies, and a further 30 million Euros of Feder (European participation), plus all the partners who participated in the development for the deployment of their companies, such as EDF, GDF, and other large companies. The interesting fact to be noted is the cooperation which developed around the Derbi hub; the global approach with industrialists, investors and others gave rise to a movement which included the entire network.

The Senator and Mayor of Perpignan sees here an opportunity for the evolution of his city and the various attraction zones that he wishes to develop, without forgetting the importance of job creation, an important indicator of the economic wealth of an area. The fact that sustainable development will soon have its own Ministry is a token of recognition for all those working in renewable energies, and of confidence in the future for this industry in full transformation.

Perpignan has an additional asset which will certainly improve its market share in the long term; its cross-border position with Spain. As André Joffre also noted: "Spanish companies are coming to France and French companies are already present in Spain." The County Council, through its President, confirmed that this was the first time they had assigned such an important budget to a network, 6 million Euros for nuclear energy and 4 million Euros for solar energy, by making research in these areas of focus and two other developments a priority: dish antennas to provide solar energy in Africa and industrial production of solar furnaces for the African continent. In addition, all new constructions in the city or in the department must adhere to the renewable energies process, particularly in terms of energy saving, solar heaters for housing projects, as well as solar panels. There is also a need for small power plants on dams…. And finally new taxation laws which should make it possible to progress even faster.
One can only be delighted to see as much will on behalf of the political and institutional leaders and actors of the economic world brought together to promote and ensure the success of a project of general interest which goes beyond the simple fact of supporting a network, since this progress will have an impact on the entire population in the long term.

This is important since, from students to employees including workers and executives, all can look forward to the creation of jobs related to these developments which will make it possible for all to work in their area peacefully and without fear. For this to happen, it is necessary that the infrastructures, particularly in terms of training also be provided. André Joffre is very direct on this subject, emphasizing the need for building or remodeling training colleges, those which already exist being practically saturated. When asked whether the building of a training centre or college is on the agenda, and on their objective, Andre Joffre immediately gives a positive response full of optimism. Let us hear what he has to say on this subject which is important to him:
"I would even say that today there are too many initiatives. For the past two years we have had a high school at the Baccalaureate plus 4 and 5 level which prepares for a professional Masters in Renewable Energies, (solar energy), which is quite a success. But there are indeed many proposals: a mushrooming of vocational degree projects. At the level of the academic authorities, the Pablo Casals high school will initiate a solar electricity technical advanced vocational training certificate. In view of all these proposed projects, we will have to set up a commission to try to channel all these while ensuring that there is no duplication. It is really necessary to train very good technicians. I do not think that this is a very complicated task because young people are more attracted towards these professions, and this type of training will give them a new direction in life. Moreover, it is certainly in the Sustained Development and Renewable Energies sector that one will be able bring back value to manual and construction work, because much has to be accomplished in this field. To return to training, we have extensive collaboration with other hubs, and many trainees work all over France.

These are vocational trainings, solar energy is being installed every-where, and there are many internship positions foreseen in the degree course. One must acknowledge that it is very easy for us to send these young people on internships as they are recognized as being quality professionals. We want to develop solar energy in our region and the Professional Masters is based on this activity, but it is true that we will have to work on wind energy, as well as on the Master's degree of energy in the building trade. It is an important subject, considering that all these old constructions require renovation; this is a considerable task to be accomplished, which one should not neglect at all."

For Andre Joffre, Derbi is an accelerator between companies and laboratories

This is the view point which led to the creation of the Derbi competitiveness hub as he explains to us, and success has done the rest …
Andre Joffre: "The relationships exist, but one feels that this is not completely natural, because the dialogue is not obvious, the language is not common. For this reason we need an intelligent tool. The "Derbi Competitiveness Hub" makes it possible to combine all this in order to accelerate the companies/laboratories relationships, this is its objective. If at the beginning it was a little theoretical, now this has become easier, and when companies and laboratories are working together on a project, results are explosive, since there is mutual enrichment; the same principle applies to collaborative projects. This is not easy, but once we can show examples of projects with important financing that are being carried out, it can be done. This is the principle, nevertheless we must be modest; we have only be doing this for two years, but we have already earned 10 million Euros for companies and laboratories of the region, half of which came from Paris, which proves that we are recognized by the capital; this is not bad. Now, we have very beautiful projects in the pipe-lines, knocking on the door to obtain new financing. "
When asked whether he was considering opening a European partnership with the competitiveness hub, he replies very rightly:
"When one works on a given project, there are very often cases where we are confronted with a difficulty, because if we do not have the suitable expert in the region, if he is in Freiburg, in Barcelona or elsewhere, we will seek him. The fact of being a competitiveness hub whose core is in the Languedoc Roussillon area does not mean that we will ignore competences which could come from elsewhere, provided that the project is strictly formalized primarily in this region. Today, the Ternerrdis hub of Rhône Alpes and Capénergies of Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur are present with us; this is a proof that we want to work together. We have already co-labeled projects between a company in Perpignan and one from Cannes; hence it is a joint project that the two hubs will recognize. This does not mean a marriage between the hubs, but it is necessary to develop relationships into a powerful collaboration. We endeavor to make the region most accessible to projects, by being open to all influences which are in the air at the present time. In addition, we have representatives of Spanish industries at all our round tables and we will organize in the fall a collective visit of French companies and laboratories in Spain, on behalf of the three hubs. We are designing a program which will involve Madrid, Pamplona and probably the south. Quite naturally the Derbi hub, considering its proximity to Spain, will be the coordinator of the action."
To hear André Joffre speak about all this with so much energy and optimism makes one want to be there to assess the first positive effects of this trip.