The La Rochelle conference focused on alternative energies in transport lies behind us. The city of La Rochelle, with its many experimentations about mobility, was the perfect location for 80 professionals to be inspired and exchange knowledge and experiences about Gas, Biogas, Electricity, Algaefuel, hydrogen power-togas and also magnetic levitation. The Vice-President of La Rochelle in charge of mobility and transportation Brigitte Desveaux stays all day long with us and present all the alternative energy scenarios about La Rochelle.
CEO Jerry Sanders of Skytran first present us the unusual approach of skytran to solve the city’s traffic problem. Estimated cost less per KM compared to traditional modes, Jerry emphasizes the people enjoy the cars because of the privacy and do not want to use public transport. If magnetic levitation already exists, the main difficulty in Europe with this kind of new modes of transport could rely on historic sites and monuments board…
Many presentations focused alternative energies. Some highlights:
- MEL Lille is now running 428 buses with biogas (170 millions of KM experience) and almost 300 buses in Nantes Metropole use gaz. Grand Poitiers with 62 buses with gaz argued that the operator will need to consider a range of factors such as maintenance and refuelling times
- Frederic Bataille from Valagro explained how algae can be the third generation of biofuels.
- Anne Meyer from UTP has presented a european overview about full electric and hybrid buses and the European ZeEUS project dedicated to experimentations.
- Both presentation of Pr Alan Hutchinson and Ghislain Delabie have shown that peri-urban and rural territories have to be innovative in their approaches, involving communities.
EIGSI Research Dpt thanks the 18 keynote speakers for their invaluable contribution.
FIRST SESSION: PERSONNAL RAPID TRANSIT & AUTOMATED ROAD TRANSPORT
SECOND SESSION : TERRITORIES & ENERGY MIX
- Biogas case with Métropole Européenne de Lille Yannick Jacob, head of network evolution service http://fr.slideshare.net/veroniqueseel/mel-mtropole-europenne-de-lille-yannick-jacob-chef-du-service-volution-du-rseau
- Nantes Metropole experimentations, Alain Boeswillwald, managing Director of SEMITAN http://fr.slideshare.net/veroniqueseel/5-semitan-gnvjuin2015
- Renewable energies and transport in Poitou-Charentes, Hervé Philippot manager of AREC PC http://fr.slideshare.net/veroniqueseel/6-arec-repute-20150615
- Grand Poitiers, as a pioneer : natural gaz in1998 and first hybrid test in 2010, Laurent Fonteneau, mobility and transport Director / Christian PETIT Vitalis http://fr.slideshare.net/veroniqueseel/grand-poitiers-quelle-motorisation-pour-quelle-transition-nergtique
- La Rochelle overview, Brigitte Desveaux, Vice-President of La Rochelle in charge of Mobility &Transportation http://fr.slideshare.net/veroniqueseel/le-cas-la-rochelle-brigitte-desveaux-viceprsidente-en-charge-des-transports-et-de-la-mobilit
- Algaefuel, biofuel 3ird génération, Frédéric Bataille CEO Valagro Carbone renouvelable http://fr.slideshare.net/veroniqueseel/algocarburant-biocarburant-3ime-gnration-frdric-bataille-valagro-carbone-renouvelable
THIRD SESSION : ELECTRIC BUSES & VEHICULES
CLOSING SESSION : RURAL AND PERI-URBAN TERRITORIES OF ATLANTIC AREA
REPUTE (Renewable Energy in Public Transport Enterprise) is an 18 month project funded by the Atlantic Area Transnational programme which aims to develop and promote the use of Renewable Energy in Public Transport. REPUTE promotes innovation and engagement in the efficient use of energy in public transport by means of information provision, stimulation of enterprise and behaviour change, and policy change recommendations. www.reputeproject.eu
INVESTING IN OUR COMMON FUTURE
2- EIGSI WP leader of the Atlantic Area Tour 2015
EIGSI engineering school from La Rochelle westcoast south of France was in charge of the design and the management of the final conference Tour into all 6 regions and 5 countries implicated into the reputeproject.
EIGSI designs a full 2 weeks Tour with 6 stops through Atlantic Area from Glasgow, Scotland to Toress Vedras, Portugal: we repute partners have been travelling for 12 days together from Scotland UK to Irland, France, Spain and Portugal
This Tour became reality because first of the enthousiams and dedication of all partners of the project.
This idea of doing a roadshow through Atlantic Area came because of:
- Logistics optimization and carbon footprint efficiency : In Atlantic area, there is still a lack of “contactibility” between cities and almost of partners are based in small medium sized cities As an exemple to go from la Rochelle to Thurles (LIT location) it takes more than 24H travel,2 planes, 2buses, 1train. So for each conference, for all partners, it’s a lot of time and CO2 emission. By doing the conferences this way, one day travel and one day conference, we saved time, money and CO2
- Team building and improvement of the dissemination : The Repute project was short 18 months long. By inviting all partners to do all conferences one after another (like a rock star tour ;)) it allows us to improve the next event itself and also to work together into the bus : travel time become this way a co working time with sessions about the ongoing events but also about future solutions, especially for rural territories, new ideas even if the repute project is closed.
- It’s trendy ! Many organizations (private and non for profit) do communication it this way. And for a transport project it make sense to do it this way. Regarding Atlantic area space, it helps us to show what is Atlantic area on a map and simply to promote Atlantic Area.
- Finally It help us also to connect with many stakeholders from all regions and they seems to be happy to be an official stop of the Atlantic Area Tour
In order to invigorate this Tour, in addition with almost 30 local experts speakers, we also invite 3 “out of the box” Tour guests, speakers aswell: - Jerry Sanders From SKYtran was with us in 2 stops: Newry and La Rochelle
Both Rajnish and Ghislain ride the bus with us from La Rochelle to Portugal ! Rajnish Ahuja, a young indian researcher on clean energy from Pahle Fondation New Delhi non for profit organisation and Ghislain Delabie mobility connector at Ouishare network dealing with collaborative economy
We EIGSI asked OuiShare to ride the bus with us in order to offer some opportunities for cooperation among the team members of REPUTE. The perspective of spending some 22 hours on a bus between La Rochelle (France) and Torres Vedras (Portugal) both opened opportunities and looked a bit awkward.
How to get 12 people conveniently work and share useful insights in a bus where you are supposed to seat 2 by 2, with no WiFi connection available and a diverse team of people focused on different tasks or needing to rest?
Ghislain Delabie from OuiShare used iterative creative techniques to generate and challenge ideas 2 by 2, then meeting in the 6-person corner at the rear of the bus to collectively discuss issues.
This time on the bus on the bus made it possible to know better each other, both professionally and personally, which is a clear asset for future collaborations. Through iterative creative workshops we also managed to raise a broad range of topics for future collaborations and to reflect on the outcomes of the REPUTE project. It ended with a 2-hours workshop drawing the possible basis for a future 3-year project.
The program of such a trip could include collaborative workshops and local study tours at each (one full-day) stop in a partnering city. In each city we could embark on the bus local stakeholders till the next stop. Those people would be given the opportunity to engage in collaborative workshops aboard the bus and to attend workshops and study tour at the next stop…
We are now convinced that this kind of mobile and collaborative workshop session would be a tremendous way of engaging partners and stakeholders in the future if this journey were scheduled right at the beginning of the project.
