Energy transition of the company CLOSE: Study phase

Abstract

Lately, the air quality and the global warming became a concern for most people. Conscious about the impact of human activity on the environment, the company CLOSE desires to make a change to reduce its own impact. This work studies the energy transition of the company CLOSE and proposes solutions to reduce the environmental footprint of its activity. To reach this goal, the energetic needs of the company are as- sessed. Then, substitute solutions that could meet the needs of mobility, heating, cooling, ventilation and electricity are studied. Afterwards, technical, environmental and economical criteria are used to select the appropriate solutions. Finally, the potential savings linked to the different solutions are evaluated. The analysis of the consumption showed that 86.2% of the energy is used for mobility. A study of alter- native solutions for mobility is performed taking into account the daily mileage needs of the employees and the solutions available on the market: natural gas vehicles, electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles and hy- drogen vehicles. The outcome showed that a switch from vehicles using petroleum to electric vehicles is doable for the major part of the employees having a company car and would reduce the emissions related to the fleet by 19.6% if the electricity used to charge the vehicles comes from the grid and further more if the electric vehicles are coupled with renewable sources of electricity. Regarding the building, different solutions are considered. It resulted that the most appropriate energy saving measures are photovoltaic panels and wind turbines. Using a software, the annual electricity production of a photovoltaic facility has been assessed. According to the capacity of the facility, it was shown that photovoltaic panels could reduce up to 20% of the emissions of the building. It arose that the building and the fleet needs must be considered simultaneously in order to benefit at best from the electricity produced thanks to renewable sources. The solutions considered together allow a smooth energy transition and a reduction of the carbon footprint of the company.