A Internet das Coisas (Internet of Things), ampliada pela intelig&ecirc;ncia artificial, &eacute; fundamental para melhorar a gera&ccedil;&atilde;o solar, otimizar a gest&atilde;o de baterias, aumentar a efici&ecirc;ncia operacional e reduzir custos.
O refor&ccedil;o da capacidade das baterias, que permitem armazenar energia excedente para ser consumida quando houver maior necessidade, &eacute; um dos grandes saltos para a poupan&ccedil;a de custos, uma vez que as baterias est&atilde;o cada vez mais eficientes e com um custo mais competitivo. &nbsp;
Num novo estudo, divulgado em 2021, na publica&ccedil;&atilde;o Applied Energy, investigadores da University College London (Reino Unido), IIASA (Austr&aacute;lia) e Universidade Aalto (Finl&acirc;ndia), propuseram pol&iacute;ticas inovadoras para encorajar os consumidores particulares de eletricidade a combinarem os pain&eacute;is fotovoltaicos com o armazenamento energ&eacute;tico em baterias.
O estudo mostrou que sem uma bateria, os consumidores dom&eacute;sticos apenas usam 30 a 40% da eletricidade produzida pelos seus pain&eacute;is fotovoltaicos, por n&atilde;o conseguirem aproveitar da melhor forma as horas de maior produ&ccedil;&atilde;o solar, enquanto o resto &eacute; exportado para a rede, com benef&iacute;cios reduzidos para o propriet&aacute;rio.
No entanto, com uma bateria solar, o autoconsumo atrav&eacute;s dos pain&eacute;is fotovoltaicos nos edif&iacute;cios quase duplica, permitindo &agrave;s empresas e aos clientes particulares reduzir a depend&ecirc;ncia da rede at&eacute; 84%, com poupan&ccedil;as asseguradas, assim como menor exposi&ccedil;&atilde;o &agrave; flutua&ccedil;&atilde;o dos pre&ccedil;os da eletricidade.
A EDP tem neste momento m&uacute;ltiplos clientes a n&iacute;vel ib&eacute;rico em processo de adicionar baterias para complementar as suas solu&ccedil;&otilde;es de solar. A expectativa da el&eacute;trica &eacute; a de que um em cada quatro dos seus clientes tenha baterias associadas &agrave; sua instala&ccedil;&atilde;o de solar j&aacute; em 2022, em Espanha, onde o mercado de armazenamento de energia &eacute; mais maduro.
in <a href="https://businesssummit.negocios.pt/inovacao/tecnologia-a-grande-aliada-da-transicao-energetica/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jornal de Neg&oacute;cios</a>

Reduzir custos de produção de energia e facilitar a transição energética. Uma das chaves para estas duas soluções está na pesquisa e desenvolvimento em tecnologia, nomeadamente nas baterias

Tecnologia, a grande aliada da transição energética

"The world has finally witnessed a historic agreement to move away from fossil fuels to renewable energy, a crucial step towards tackling the current climate crisis." With this phrase, a declaration of intent, the EDP Business Summit was kicked off by Vera Pinto Pereira, executive board member of EDP. The annual event, which highlights the important role played by companies in curbing climate change, has once again highlighted the urgent need to take concrete and collaborative action to tackle this global challenge.
This new edition of the EDP Business Summit was based on the importance of transforming the current production model into a more sustainable system. And after Vera Pinto Pereira,&nbsp;Andrew Winston, entered the scene to propose the following debate:&nbsp;"Is the world better because your business is in it?".
The need to embrace real change through renewable energy
Winston shared some images from cities such as Los Angeles and Paris from the lowest pollution day in the last decade. Two of the pictures showed a blue sky with a total absence of the smoke blanket that usually accompanies cities like Madrid or Barcelona. Both were taken at the beginning of April 2020, when the first containment measures for the coronavirus began to be implemented.
It's a fact:&nbsp;the transition to renewable energy sources will determine the quality of life of current and future generations. And companies must be at the center of the energy transition, because without them there is no transition towards a process of electrification of the economy. Therefore, one of the goals of this new edition of the EDP Business Summit has been to raise awareness among the main leaders of the public and private sector to commit to sustainability as a fundamental part of their&nbsp;business strategy.
During his presentation, Winston launched several data that orbit the debate initiated at the beginning. The first has to do with the growth of inequality registered in recent years:&nbsp;10% of the population will have nearly 80% of the wealth. The second concerns the forecasts launched by the reinsurer Swiss Re: if the climate neutrality objectives are not achieved by 2050,&nbsp;the global GDP of the economy will fall by 18%.
The cost of inaction is greater than the cost of action
The event continued with this maxim.&nbsp;Duarte Bello, CEO of EDP Renewables for Europe and LATAM;&nbsp;Giles Dickson, CEO of Wind Europe, and&nbsp;Kristian Ruby, Secretary General of Eurelectric, addressed in their speeches the importance of&nbsp;democratising access to renewable energy sources&nbsp;from companies that produce and supply clean energy such as EDP, but also from the different administrations to streamline bureaucratic processes.
During this panel, Duarte Bello pointed out what are, in his opinion, the main challenges that prevent a faster development of renewable energy: licensing for new renewable projects and grid capacity. The CEO of EDP Renewables stressed that, in the face of the first challenge, the tools are available to overcome it with joint collaboration. Regarding the limitations in the connection to the grid, Duarte Bello said that it is currently "a bottleneck and is not enough to face the challenges of future objectives in the field of renewables". To this end, he said that EDP "is making a commitment to artificial intelligence and digitalization, as they allow us to make smarter use of the grid and a more effective and efficient use of resources, optimizing time and reducing costs".
One of the goals of&nbsp;the Green Climate Pact &nbsp;includes reducing net greenhouse gas&nbsp;emissions&nbsp;by at least 55%&nbsp;by 2040, as well as&nbsp;promoting the electrification&nbsp;of transport and residential heat, as well as&nbsp;electricity generation from renewables. But experts have acknowledged that, although there has been progress in terms of energy, the current state is still quite far from the objectives set by the European Union.
In addition to analyzing the current context, Ruby placed special emphasis on the&nbsp;participation in achieving these objectives. The measures proposed during his presentation are based on three fundamental pillars: energy&nbsp;self-sufficiency, the&nbsp;electrification&nbsp;of vehicle fleets and the commitment to emission-free energy for subsequent&nbsp;storage.
Decentralization of energy generation, key for countries such as Spain
During the event, the speakers continued to analyse the energy situation in countries such as Germany, where there are one million points of energy introduction into the electricity grid. The fact that this event was held in Lisbon is no coincidence either:&nbsp;Spain and Portugal are the regions with the highest number of hours of sun in Europe, so their commitment to renewable energies, such as solar energy, should be marked as an imperative.
As of today,&nbsp;Spain&nbsp;has an installed capacity of&nbsp;1,706 megawatts (MW) of solar self-consumption&nbsp;and an annual increase of 23.3% is expected, reaching 82.2 gigawatts (GW) by 2027. Spain's revised National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC), subject to validation by the European Commission, aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 32% by 2030. It also seeks&nbsp;to increase the contribution of renewable energies to 48%&nbsp;of&nbsp;final energy consumption, with the goal that these sources generate&nbsp;81% of electricity&nbsp;by the same year.
EDP's solution for change is clear:&nbsp;diversify energy sources and decentralize their generation.&nbsp;EDP's&nbsp;as-a-service&nbsp;model&nbsp;that makes its implementation possible, which has already been widely accepted in other countries such as the United States, is a solution for those&nbsp;companies that cannot afford to assume the costs of installing&nbsp;this type of platform for self-supply.
Finally,&nbsp;John O'Donnell, CEO of Rondo Energy,&nbsp;and Miguel Fonseca, member of EDP's Management Team, highlighted the various&nbsp;competitive and economic advantages&nbsp;for the industrial sector of joining this energy transition:&nbsp;job creation, acceleration of reindustrialisation, attraction of investments, etc. If we talk about operational aspects, the constant flow of supply ensures the proper functioning of the factories, in addition to the reuse of the energy stored through thermal energy batteries, such as those of&nbsp;Rondo Energy, a company with which EDP announced the start of a partnership in Europe during the event.
EDP, a leading partner for companies on the road to sustainability
During the closing of the EDP Business Summit 2024, the various solutions that the company offers to contribute to a sustainable future were highlighted. Figures such as&nbsp;Pedro Vinagre, CEO of EDP Renewables for Northern and Central Europe;&nbsp;Bruce Douglas, CEO of the Global Renewables Alliance and&nbsp;David Post, CEO of EASE (European Association for Energy Storage), discussed the technologies that are reshaping the energy landscape such as hybridization, a technology in which EDP is a pioneer, or agrivoltaics, in which the company is beginning to make a big bet. The roundtable served to reaffirm EDP's commitment to this cause, announcing an&nbsp;investment&nbsp;of no less than&nbsp;25,000 million euros until 2026&nbsp;to install more renewable energy for households and businesses.
To date, the company has already installed&nbsp;1.7 GWp of solar distributed generation capacity&nbsp;worldwide. In addition, EDP has nearly&nbsp;3,500 electric charging points for sustainable mobility contracted in our country, which include both public and private spaces. Among its customers are companies such as Decathlon, with more than 400 throughout the country;&nbsp;Ahorramas, with 450 charging points; and&nbsp;Pretroprix, with whom it will collaborate to deploy the largest network of ultra-fast charging points for electric vehicles in Spain. The latter is also a project funded by the European Union - NextGenerationEU, through the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan).
Spain, Europe, and the world have a unique opportunity to act to control the alarming effects of climate change. Accelerating the global energy transition is in our hands, as was evident at EDP Business Summit 2024. We must take a step forward, both at government and business level, to collaborate in the transformation of the energy system and adopt the latest technologies and business models that are committed to the future.

Lisbon has witnessed an important event for companies and customers that aims to contribute to offering solutions to end climate disruptions. This new edition of the EDP Business Summit  exposed the reality facing the world and proposed a portfolio of solutions to transform the production model of companies.

EDP Business Summit 2024: How to make the world a better place through my business

The decarbonization of the economy and the energy transition are no longer mirages but a reality that is now palpable. In January, Portugal managed to ensure that 81% of its energy came from renewable sources - a positive sign for the road ahead until 2026, when the country is supposed to guarantee 80% of energy production from hydro, solar or wind sources on a consistent basis. Finding solutions and defining strategies to meet the goals towards carbon neutrality is the ambition of the international event EDP Business Summit 2024, which returns to Lisbon on March 7th, digitally accessible worldwide, with a program featuring recognized national and international speakers. In anticipation, Jornal de Neg&oacute;cios spoke with Vera Pinto Pereira, executive board member at EDP, about the challenges of the energy transition.
&nbsp;
EDP has set 2040 as the deadline to become carbon neutral. What challenges need to be overcome to get there? 
Portugal, Europe, and the world have a unique opportunity to move towards controlling the alarming impacts of climate change. On this front, the type of energy sources we use daily is critical. We cannot continue to use fossil fuels as we have been and urgently need to replace them with renewable, inexhaustible sources with no carbon emissions. But besides mitigating climate change, the energy transition to sustainable resources presents a series of opportunities for economies, companies, and families.
&nbsp;
What are these opportunities? 
I'll start with the financial ones. There is no question that the greater penetration of renewable electricity will lower costs for customers, as we stop importing fossil fuels and start using renewable and locally produced electricity. Additionally, the European Union estimates that about 30 million jobs will be created in Europe within this industry, with the potential to create supply chains in countries like Portugal, which has been a pioneer in this sector.
&nbsp;
Is significant investment needed to get there?
At EDP, we see this decade as decisive. We know we have to lead by example, and that's why we have committed to investing &euro;25 billion in the energy transition by 2026, doubling the renewable capacity we will have installed and investing in wind, solar energy, energy storage, and emerging technologies like green hydrogen. At the same time, we are closing down coal-fired power plants - in Portugal, we did it at the beginning of 2021 - and by the end of the decade, we want to be 100% green, using only water, sun, and wind to produce the electricity we generate in the four global regions where we operate. As challenges, I would list the need to accelerate the pace and to work in partnership - companies, public and private entities, and customers - so that we can achieve the ambitious decarbonization goals.
&nbsp;
The energy transition in Portugal will create 300,000 jobs by 2025, according to McKinsey.
&nbsp;
Portugal has advanced the goal of having at least 80% of its energy produced from renewables by 2026. How do we make the leap to 100%?
The goal is ambitious, but we think it&rsquo;s possible. In January alone, this target was already achieved, with 81% of production coming from renewable sources. We know that it was a very positive month, with plenty of rain, which allowed us to increase hydroelectric production and that, although there was little wind to produce wind energy, one day in January even broke the record for wind production in Portugal. For renewable production rates to remain at these levels, and because we know there will not always be abundant rain or wind, Portugal needs to accelerate the development of renewable projects.
&nbsp;
And is it possible to do this while reducing costs?&nbsp;
There is a huge opportunity in the Iberian Peninsula to take advantage of the approximately 300 days of sunlight per year to generate energy. Thousands of companies with available roofs or land could be used to increase the country's renewable capacity and simultaneously reduce electricity costs for entities in self-consumption regimes by over 25%. And finally, we need to invest in solutions for storing this energy
&nbsp;
Renewable sources are crucial for the reindustrialization of Europe and the country. Considering the natural characteristics of the country and the resources it possesses, can Portugal assert itself in the EU through energy?
Portugal has been a pioneer in this sector, and I believe it has all the conditions to continue to be part of European leadership. We were the first country to commit to carbon neutrality by 2050 we have even accelerated that goal to 2045. Over 20 years ago, EDP invested in wind energy in Portugal, making the country one of the European leaders in the early development of this technology. About 10 years ago, EDP tested the resilience of a floating wind turbine off the coast of P&oacute;voa do Varzim, and years later, installed the first semi-submersible park in Viana do Castelo on the European coast, a project that is still used as a flagship project worldwide.
&nbsp;
Will this change have an impact on employment?
While there will be sectors linked to the fossil industry that are potentially affected by the energy transition, the labor market will be transformed by the creation of a large number of new jobs and specialized training. In Portugal, McKinsey's estimates point to the creation of 300 thousand new jobs in the short term, particularly in sectors such as energy production, transportation, buildings, industry, agriculture, waste, and forestry, not to mention professional requalification and training. It is an opportunity that we must seize.
&nbsp;
"Portugal has proven to be a pioneer in this sector, and I believe it has all the conditions to continue being part of European leadership." Vera Pinto Pereira, Executive Board Member at EDP
&nbsp;
Decentralized energy production and energy communities are becoming increasingly important in this path. Are there still challenges in implementing these projects, particularly in terms of licensing?
Although we continue to feel that the development and implementation of these communities could be faster, given the country's potential and the demand from companies and families, it is important to note that in recent months, we have felt that processes are finally starting to speed up and that we could, in the short to medium term, be putting these communities into operation and sharing the benefits with the thousands of customers who have wanted to be part of these projects. Energy communities are a true example of what EDP advocates as a fair energy transition - through the use of inexhaustible solar energy it is possible to increase renewable energy production, make our consumption more sustainable, reduce electricity costs, and share these benefits with families or businesses that do not have available space for their own solar panels. By installing a larger plant at a certain customer, which we call a producer, we can produce more energy than they need and share it with neighbouring companies or families, creating what we call the EDP Solar Neighbourhood. The more than 2,600 communities we already have contracted or are under development will allow us to share benefits with about 40 thousand neighbours, a project of which we are proud, and which perfectly represents several of the benefits of transitioning to cleaner energy sources.
&nbsp;
EDP has a long history of signing long-term energy contracts, particularly with multinationals such as Google or Amazon. What benefits do these contracts represent for companies making their way through the energy transition?
One of the most comprehensive measures in economic, environmental, and ESG criteria improvement are Power Purchase Agreements that companies can sign with energy producers and traders. In these contracts, which have variable durations but typically exceed five years and can even be 20 years long, a fixed price is guaranteed to the client for the contracted energy, reducing their exposure to market volatility. This option also significantly reduces a company's carbon footprint and environmental impact, especially for those with high energy needs in their production systems. For EDP, long-term contracting allows us to continue developing renewable projects with the guarantee of stability and our track record, with around 9 GW of energy contracted over the long term, proves the success of these contracts.
&nbsp;
What are the priority sectors of activity in the long-term contract strategy?
There are rationales for long-term contracts for various types of customers, but the ones who can benefit most from this type of contract are those who have large energy needs, as is the case with some industries. EDP Comercial has signed an 18-year long-term contract with AAPICO for energy supply, with significant benefits for this client. There is also increasing demand from other types of customers such as data center managers, as is the case with Amazon or Microsoft, who have chosen EDP Renewables for long-term energy supply. However, EDP has increasingly signed medium-term contracts with small and medium-sized companies, guaranteeing them price stability and predictable energy costs for that period. In 2023 alone, we signed contracts for around 1 TWh/year of energy in the Iberian Peninsula.

Vera Pinto Pereira, executive board member at EDP, emphasizes that now is the time for the country to step up its adoption of green energy, given that in January, 81% of its energy came from renewable sources. In an interview, she outlines the challenges that still need to be overcome.

If you have any questions about the event please do not hesitate to contact us: supportingteam@winworld.pt

EDP BUSINESS SUMMIT '22

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Innovation

21 October 2022

Tecnologia, a grande aliada da transição energética

Reduzir custos de produção de energia e facilitar a transição energética. Uma das chaves para estas duas soluções está na pesquisa e desenvolvimento em tecnologia, nomeadamente nas baterias