Capgemini's Florent Andrillon on Corporate Sustainability

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Florent Andrillon, Climate Tech Global Lead at Capgemini
Florent Andrillon, Climate Tech Global Lead at Capgemini, shares how renewable energy is not just a clean alternative but a strategic business advantage

Renewable energy plays a vital role in the significant leap towards attaining sustainability aspirations.

In the face of escalating global CO₂ emissions, reaching a record 36.8 billion metric tons in 2022, businesses are increasingly leaning on clean energy initiatives.

However, the surge in emissions mirrors an increase in energy consumption rather than a deficiency in renewable energy supply.

In 2022 alone, the global capacity for renewable energy surged by 9.6%, contributing an additional 295GW. Solar and wind energy dominated this growth, with solar power alone making up roughly 60% of new capacities and accounting for 12% of global electricity output.

By adopting renewable resources, companies not only work towards reducing their carbon footprints but also shield themselves from the unpredictable costs of fossil fuels.

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The economics of renewable energies are increasingly attractive. For instance, the price of solar PV plummeted by 89% between 2009 and 2019. This makes the inclusion of clean energy into business strategies financially and environmentally beneficial, supporting ambitious net-zero commitments and worldwide climate action initiatives.

Florent Andrillon stands at the forefront, spearheading Capgemini's offerings in climate tech's strategic and developmental aspects.

His expertise is pivotal in amalgamating sustainability, industry-specific knowledge and technological intelligence to formulate unique value propositions. These aim to aid clients and partners in escalating their climate tech solutions and achieving net zero ambitions.

I started my career in the internet 1.0 era and since then have been passionate about innovation and technology. The creativity and drive of innovators inspire me. That’s why I collaborate with them to find impactful solutions that lessen our footprint on the planet.

Florent Andrillon, Climate Tech Global Lead, Capgemini

Since joining Capgemini Invent in 2005, Florent has devoted more than two decades to the energy and utilities sector, assisting businesses in navigating their sustainability journeys and transitioning to a low-carbon economy.

Here, he shares his thoughts.

Q. What role does green and renewable energy play in sustainability goals?

Sustainability encompasses a lot of topics covering all the planetary boundaries such as carbon emissions, but also biodiversity and resource efficiency including energy, water, scarce materials.

From a carbon emission standpoint, renewables or clean energies are nothing less than the solution to decrease reliance on fossil fuels and mitigate climate change.

Fossil-based energy sources for power generation, transportation and industrial processes generate around 80% of GHG emissions.

From a carbon emission standpoint, renewables or clean energies are nothing less than the solution to decrease reliance on fossil fuels, and mitigate climate change

Florent Andrillon, Climate Tech Global Lead, Capgemini

Transitioning away from fossil-based energy to clean or renewable sources — including wind, solar, nuclear power or green gases — is essential to reach net zero goals and achieve sustainability. 

However while the identification of the solution is easy, the implementation is the biggest human challenge of the century. This transition is an industrial revolution that needs to happen at digital speed. 

It disrupts the modern world as we know it (replacing our energy system with new, more efficient and cleaner infrastructure), especially in a context where energy demand is likely to increase.

Q. What are the business benefits of switching to green and renewable energy?

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global energy demand could rise by 50% to 100% compared to current levels, driven by population growth and economic development, particularly in emerging markets and developing countries.

At the same time, energy supply will face tough challenges such as resource scarcity, geopolitical tensions and a very strong pressure to transition away from fossil fuels.

In that context, renewable energy and electrification are the best way to make our energy systems more efficient and answer this increasing demand.

Replacing fossil fuel technologies with renewable energy and electrification solutions can be two to four times more efficient as they are reducing energy losses associated with extracting, transporting and burning fossil fuels, and have a higher efficiency.

For example, an electric vehicle converts more than 77% of the electrical energy from the grid to power at the wheels, compared to only about 12-30% of the energy stored in gasoline.

With this paradigm shift, comes business opportunities all across the value chain with new generators, smart networks and smart grids, green hydrogen generation and new products powered by clean energy or clean electricity.

Additionally, business benefits of switching to renewables and clean energy comes from a strong need for acceleration across the whole lifecycle, from R&D to decommissioning and recycling, through industrialisation to ensure transition at scale.

Q. How does renewable energy adoption support regulation requirements?

We see it the other way around, regulation should support renewable adoption, by maintaining high ambitions for capacity installation, strong incentives, streamlined project development and flexible auction conditions, reducing time to operation and reducing the administrative hurdle.

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Additionally, auction conditions need to be more flexible to ensure projects are financially viable. Electricity markets must also evolve to support the new power ecosystem. 

While corporations are increasingly adopting renewable power purchase agreements, the wholesale market must also adjust its fundamentals, such as clearing price setting, driven by the decline of fossil-based power generators, the drop in LCOE and the rise in storage capacities. 

Q. What are the challenges in renewable energy adoption, and how is Capgemini reducing them?

The global adoption of renewables is held back by scaling and integration challenges.

COP28 has set an ambitious 11TW capacity by 2030 but hitting this mark will require a very strong acceleration on each and every step of the value chain.

Negative pricing that occurs because there is too much power vs demand in some geographies will also need to be solved with energy storage solutions and we already see Battery Energy Storage (BES) peak up quickly.

The global adoption of renewables is held back by scaling and integration challenges.

Florent Andrillon, Climate Tech Global Lead, Capgemini

Capgemini helps with this acceleration by providing advice to better build ecosystems: scale operating models and facilitate projects pipeline securing.

Also, Capgemini helps leveraging digital technologies to maintain profitability while scaling asset portfolios and supports the development of data-driven asset performance optimisation. 

Finally, as a long-time industry partner, Capgemini can help transform toward a cost-optimised and standardised engineering.

Combining better business and projects practices, technology integration and model industrialisation, Capgemini targets all levers to support financial viability of a global renewable adoption. 

At the same time, for every dollar spent in renewable energy, a dollar should be put in the infrastructure — and Capgemini supports in targeting the right investments to make a smarter, more reliable and more sustainable network.

Make sure you check out the latest edition of Energy Digital Magazine and also sign up to our global conference series - Sustainability LIVE 2024


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