Enabling the green energy shift
Key takeaways from the EGGS for Breakfast event
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At the EGGS for Breakfast networking event 'Enabling the green energy shift' in EGGS Copenhagen, we explored examples of inspiring innovation related to green energy. Our clients BladeBUG – advanced robots for wind turbine inspection and repair - and Alfa Laval - world-leading in sustainable solutions within the Energy, Food, Water, and Marine industries presented inspiring examples. EGGS' Kim André Bøe also told us about our recent projects for Mer, a European provider of EV-charging and related services. In this article, you can read a summary of the key takeaways.
BladeBUG – the growth of offshore wind and the challenges in maintenance
The wind power industry is an essential provider of clean energy. It's also a rapidly developing one, and BladeBUG Director Chris Cieslak walked us through some impressive facts about the industry:
Wind turbines are getting bigger and bigger and more and more powerful. By 2050, the worldwide capacity of wind power farms is expected to be 520GW (compared to today's 32GW), and companies like Vestas are prototyping turbine blades that measure over 115 meters in length.
Wind farms are moving further and further out at sea, where winds are stronger. The farms here are floating windmill farms instead of fixed bottom ones.
Wind farms far out at sea, together with larger turbines, enable more powerful turbines, but it also presents challenges in terms of maintaining them. Bigger turbines that are in far-off locations are expensive and complicated, and dangerous to inspect and repair.
Alfa Laval – accelerating sustainable solutions in the energy transition through partnerships
The decarbonisation of society is a huge and significant challenge. In her presentation, Kajsa Dahlberg (CleanTech and Communication Project Manager) reminded us that it is also a dual one: At the same time as we urgently need to reduce our emissions, we also need to meet a rapidly increasing energy demand in the world (by 2050 it's expected to be 54% higher than today). Moving towards more energy-efficient solutions in the industries, where Alfa Laval is a world leading provider of solutions within heat transfer, is key for succeeding with a green shift.
For this, it's essential to work with partnerships, where Alfa Laval as a supplier can help their clients move towards more sustainable operations. Alfa Laval approaches the climate challenge through three main areas: 1) energy efficiency, 2) clean energy, and 3) circular economy.
Mer – a holistic Electric Vehicle charging experience in a shifting landscape
In his presentation, Kim Bøe, Senior Digital Designer in EGGS, took us through the past few years of collaboration with Mer. In 2020, Statkraft launched Mer, a merger of multiple existing companies in the EV space across Northern Europe and the UK, including our previous client Grønn Kontakt. Mer brought EGGS onboard to help launch a new app, customer portal and to help implement their new brand across physical charging locations in Norway, Sweden and the UK. From this journey, Kim presented a few learnings:
It's not always a good thing to innovate fast. When you're a big organisation and have already established services, you have to move a bit slower than a smaller company. If not, you risk disappointing already existing customers or users.
The EV (Electric Vehicle) market is not evolving at the same speed everywhere. Some countries, like Norway, are ahead of other markets, which needs to be considered when working with the experience of EV and EV charging service.
Implementing a new brand in different markets with varying maturity, geography, climate, and cultures requires planning. And it's essential to get it right as the physical experience of the brand – Mer EV charging in this case – will affect the user experience.
