Energy companies and climate initiatives lead the charge for environmental sustainability
January 17, 2023 | 8 minute readAccording to the International Energy Agency report, “Renewables 2022 Analysis and Forecast to 2027,” the current global energy crisis, which was brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is driving unprecedented progress in renewable energy sources.
Growth in renewables “will likely accelerate” according to Deloitte’s 2023 renewable energy industry outlook, due to all-time high demand, combined with record-breaking clean energy incentives in the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act. Deloitte expects progress in renewables despite challenges encountered in 2022, including increased costs, supply chain-driven project delays, trade policy uncertainty, inflation, and rising interest rates.
How Big Oil is participating in renewables
According to Ethical Consumer, the four biggest UK oil companies (BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell) have all published plans acknowledging the climate impacts of fossil fuels with goals for their emissions to reach net zero by 2050.
Big Oil is lowering emissions through electric vehicle charging. BP Pulse electric vehicle charging points were voted the most used in the UK by customers in 2020. Shell plans to increase its EV charging points from 60,000 in 2021 to 2.5 million by 2030. ExxonMobil has also released its EV charger product range, Mobil EV.
Other investments include BP’s $2.2 billion “low-carbon investments” in 2021 (1.4% of its operating revenue) and its plan to quadruple its renewables development. “BP plans to grow its renewable output 20-fold, while slashing oil output by 40% by 2030,” according to Reuters.
Shell has communicated its plan to invest $3 billion in its renewables and energy solutions business. Shell New Energies US LLC (Shell), a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc, “is working to provide more renewable and low-carbon energy options for customers through investments in wind, solar, electric vehicle charging, hydrogen, and more,” according to the company’s website. Investments in projects across five continents include: wind farms, solar farms, reforestation, hydrogen production, and fueling and electric vehicle charging.
As an example, read about the Mayflower Wind project off the East Coast of the U.S.
ExxonMobil and Chevron are focused more on biofuel and hydrogen, which require less infrastructure change from fossil fuels than wind or solar, according to Ethical Consumer. ExxonMobil plans for $15 billion “of lower-emission investments” through 2027. Chevron has communicated investment plans of $10 billion in “lower-carbon investments” by 2028, according to the company’s website. In 2021, Chevron became the first major U.S. oil company to invest in offshore wind power “after signing a deal with Norway’s Moreld to help develop the turbine technology of tech firm Ocergy,” according to Forbes.
How industry leaders are increasing control and decreasing risk on ground-breaking renewables projects
Wind power
Mayflower Wind is developing an offshore lease area off the coast of New England with the potential to generate over 2,400 megawatts (MW), or enough to power over 800,000 homes. The developer of the offshore wind project draws from the deep experience and skills of its sponsor companies, Shell New Energies and Ocean Winds North America. Ocean Winds is itself a joint venture between EDP Renewables and ENGIE.
“All decisions are documented in Oracle Aconex. It is our project system of record.”
—Seth Kaplan, director of governmental and regulatory affairs, Mayflower Wind
Mayflower Wind implemented Oracle Aconex to manage the complex project, beginning with permitting. Their impressive accomplishments include:
- Speeding 1,000 workflow permitting process by 60%.
- Completing document reviews 66% faster than their contractual obligation.
- Setting up 116 workflows in just two hours.
- Completing workflows 40-60% faster due to automated routing and tracking.
- Setting up bids with documentation and recipients in between 10 and 20 minutes, approximately twice as fast as managing the process without Oracle Aconex.
Read more about how Mayflower Wind optimizes the delivery of clean energy.
Siemens Gamesa, a leader in the renewable energy industry, is working to provide the world's best offshore and onshore wind turbines and services.
As Siemens Gamesa standardized its processes and systems across offshore projects, they needed a robust, proven solution and selected Oracle Aconex. Siemens Gamesa manages over 80,000 documents on Oracle Aconex.
Through their implementation of Oracle Aconex, Siemens Gamesa was able to:
- Significantly reduce document access and review times
- Cut the time required to distribute documentation in half
- Save an estimated 5,000 working hours per project
Read more about how Siemens Gamesa is driving the renewables industry forward.
Solar power
Alternus Energy Group Plc is an international vertically integrated independent power producer (IPP) based in Dublin, Ireland. They install, own, and operate utility scale solar PV assets. The company’s current portfolio consists of 37 solar parks across Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, and Poland, producing more than 140 megawatt peak (MWp) of clean energy. Alternus aims to own and operate over 3.5 gigawatts (GW) of solar parks by 2025. To offer some idea of that scale, 1 gigawatt of solar PV provides enough energy to power up to 725,000 homes, given several factors including geography, seasonality, and electricity demand.
“We needed a holistic approach to help us define the necessary information at a project-level across the entire portfolio,” recalls Larry Farrell, chief information officer at Alternus. Pat Kiernan, project manager at Alternus, adds, “We needed a system that could assist and monitor project delivery and at the same time ensure each department had the relevant information at the right time.”
Alternus implemented Oracle Primavera Cloud, which offered significant features for planning and scheduling and provided sharper predictability of project outcomes.
Alternus has been able to:
- Increase cashflow monitoring at the project and portfolio levels
- Improve payment scheduling
- Analyze data at project and portfolio levels to inform decisions
TNB Genco, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tenaga Nasional Berhad, the largest electricity utility in Malaysia, provides clean, consistent, reliable power to over 9 million customers. The company’s commitment to constantly find better ways to create energy combined with new challenges posed by the pandemic in 2020, escalated the need to automate operations to improve efficiencies. According to Ahmad Faraid Mohammed Yahaya, TNB Genco’s Head/Senior Vice President (Asset Development), Oracle Aconex and Oracle Primavera Cloud Service provided the solutions to overcome TNB Genco’s challenges through digital construction planning and delivery.
TNB Genco has been able to:
- Automate initial project management planning and scheduling
- Collaborate on documents with their cross-organization project team
- Automatically track documentation and review cycles
- Coordinate with supply chain
- Create a full and accurate project record
“Tasks that previously took weeks now take days,” says Norhazree Azman, Portfolio Management, TNB Genco Asset Development
“Previously we did the risk management in pen and paper or in Microsoft Excel,” Norhazree adds. “The best part about Oracle Primavera Cloud is the risk module is integrated with it. It's a holistic platform for our project team, where everything is in one place.”
Electric vehicles
Automotive Cells Company is based in France. ACC, a venture founded in 2020, brings together the expertise of three major companies: SAFT, Stellantis, and Mercedes, and is set to become the European leader of automotive batteries.
ACC was faced with planning management challenges as they built several facilities across France and throughout Europe to house R&D, design, testing, and production of electric vehicle batteries. ACC also will have three gigafactory sites to produce EV batteries. Each gigafactory represents three separate units, says Guillaume Demortain, planning function leader for ACC, so a total of nine factories will be built for ACC at a rapid pace.
“One of the major challenges was to find a cloud solution for the scheduling aspect and being able to interface all our different schedules,” says Demortain, planning function leader for ACC.
Coordination of multiple schedules was necessary, and a cloud solution was the only answer.
ACC discovered that the switch from MS Project to Oracle Primavera Cloud built additional rigor into the planning process that allows them to have better control over their schedules and deadlines.
“The solution is clear and easy to use, and when everyone works off a common platform then we can synchronize schedules and better control the construction project,” says Frédéric Debouche, technology manager for Proove.
Read more about how ACC is driving the increase in electric vehicles throughout Europe.
Nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion is viewed by many as the holy grail of clean, renewable energy, according to a story in Horiba Scientific. The story details how the supply of fusion fuel is virtually unlimited. Scientists can produce tritium during the fusion reaction while in contact with lithium, and deuterium can be found in seawater. Although seawater has a small fraction of the element, fusion fuel fills our oceans, giving us a virtually limitless fuel supply.
ITER is one of the most ambitious energy projects in the world. Seven members (the original four—the European Union, Japan, Russia, and the United States—plus China, India, and South Korea) signed an agreement in 2006, launching the legal international entity, ITER (“The way” in Latin). The ITER members represent three continents, over 40 languages, half of the world's population, and 85 percent of global gross domestic product.
Today, in southern France, 35 nations are collaborating to build the world's largest tokamak, a magnetic fusion device designed to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy based on the same principle that powers our sun and stars.
ITER implemented the Oracle Primavera planning and schedule solution, Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM) to manage this massive, complex global initiative.
ITER has been able to:
- Integrate schedules within three days of receiving updated data.
- Run all reports and communicate to stakeholders within three weeks.
- Improve ability to take timely corrective action.
Hear more about ITER from Sebastian Konig in this short video.
Oracle is committed to sustainability. In addition to participating in the UN Race to Zero and the Exponential Roadmap Initiative, a climate partnership with businesses, we are working across all industries and regions to reduce carbon output and deliver long-term solutions in support of a more sustainable future.
“ITER is one of the biggest projects in the world. We can’t think about running a project like this without Oracle's Primavera P6 EPPM.“
—Sebastien Konig, Scheduling Officer
Oracle also recently completed the new Oracle Industry Lab in Reading, England, an open-air town center, complete with electric vehicle charging stations, wind turbines, and a small urban farm showing humans and nature living in balance. The facility also includes a simulated train station, featuring a sustainably built railcar—repurposed from an existing train using green materials. The lab was recently recognized by the nonprofit US Green Building Council with the prestigious and highly regarded LEED Gold Certification.
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Janet Poses
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