Francois Gabella, CEO of LEM, the manufacturer of current and voltage transducers which are used in renewable energy, power supply and automotive markets, talks to Electronics Weekly about the real renewable energy opportunity
What is the biggest opportunity in terms of technology and/or markets in 2011?
The solar market offers the greatest opportunity and has seen a huge growth in 2009 and 2010 which has been supported by incentives from various countries. However, as governments are forced to make savings due to the global economic conditions grants have been reduced for renewable energy installations.
Nonetheless, because many governments have also committed to various protocols to limit their CO2 emissions they are also committed to continued support for renewable energy projects, in particular solar and wind energy which have been the most successful due to their cost efficiency and safety.
This has also been reinforced following the nuclear crisis in Japan which has seen some countries such as Germany, Italy and Switzerland halt existing and future nuclear power plant plans. The solar market is very volatile with demand fluctuating within short timeframes. When the demand rises companies must be able to react quickly to the market requirements.
What challenges in global markets are keeping you busy at the moment?
As the car market strives to reduce CO2 emissions, there is a new emphasis on electric vehicles. One of the challenges here is to be able to charge the vehicle battery as quickly as possible and in order to do this accurate load management is required. The other challenge is to ensure safety (current leakage or short-circuit) of the charge stations which will need to be located countrywide in towns and cities.
If you had to name one design technology with the largest commercial potential this year, what would it be?
As already mentioned, green cars and renewable energy are the markets with the highest potential and we are ready for these. However, the question is: when will they really start or re-start?
The high cost of green cars is delaying their success. Here again, incentives from various governments – when and if they are provided - are likely to be the deciding factor on when the market will take off.
The “Smart Grid” is a fashionable subject and is without doubt a high potential business. Possibly this is even larger than the green car market because it involves the complete energy chain from generation to distribution through to transportation. That means storage at different points, with energy conversion, metering and sub-metering.
Here current and voltage measurements and smart meters will be needed with various requirements, either with regard to accuracy or special dimensions or other demands which may not have arisen until now. Another key point is that the management of the generated power which will be subject to energy source fluctuations with possible intermittence, similar to what is encountered with solar or wind power generation.
Also the energy distribution from the power station will need to be bi-directional whereas traditionally it has always been unipolar. This will make the networks more complex and different current, voltage and metering demands will be required.
What does the UK/Europe need to do to ensure it retains a leading position in the global market?
Innovation is certainly the key word to keep a step forward. The solar market, for example, has risen to the level it is today thanks to efficient conversion electronics which contribute to ensuring maximum profitability and return from feeding power into national grids. This enabled solar energy to become a competitive energy source that is now seeing a greater deployment worldwide.
It is also clear that government investment through incentives allowed solar energy to be deployed more widely. Without that, it would never have been successful.
This kind of grant incentive should be maintained, until overall costs for a solar installation become more widely affordable as the price of the installation versus the total quantity of energy produced decreases.
At this stage the incentives could be revised or stopped in a similar way to any investment – this is certainly a challenging market in terms of margins but these will increase as business grows.
