ENERGYPIER POWER PLANT

The EnergyPier power plant to produce green electricity and generate positive externalities

EnergyPier combined power plants produce clean (green) electricity and generate positive externalities.

Sun – Thousands of m² of solar cell modules produce large quantities of clean electricity.
Wind – The airflow accelerated by the plant’s supporting structure is converted into green electricity by EnergyPier AnemoGen^TM vertical generators

Externalities+ - EnergyPier’s structure provides additional advantages to both motorway operators and users:

Noise reduction
Reduced winter maintenance
Protection of the road against excessive heating

Important additional benefits for motorway users and operators: positive externalities

In addition to its function as a high-yielding electrical power plant, EnergyPier’s structure provides additional advantages to both motorway operators and users:

The structure, particularly its security barrier and canopy, acts as a sound insulator and ensures important noise reduction
The overhead canopy structure protects the road surface from snowfall, thus eliminating or greatly reducing the need for winter maintenance such as salting and snow ploughing
The canopy also protects from excessive heat and UV rays, thus considerably extending the service life of the road surface
The slanted overhead surface allows for rainwater collection
The supporting structure can be adapted to house cables and other conduits
The structure can accommodate emergency e-mobility powercharging points

In sum, the system as a whole creates a sustainable motorway environment, improving user experience whilst decreasing disturbance for local communities, and supplying e-mobility electricity.

Innovation #1

R&D and technical research: achieve a high level of innovation while applying only well-proven technologies to assure both the security and longevity of the structure and to avoid costly and time-consuming teething problems.

Innovation #2

Constructing over motorways without interrupting the flow of traffic by adapting existing proven construction techniques.

Innovation #3

Blending the infrastructure into the landscape: upgrade the motorway’s basic mobility function into a multifunctional tool, thus creating additional benefits without creating additional negative impacts.

Innovation #4

A combined power plant, achieving the optimal cost/performance balance: it is the combination of high performance solar cells with the EnergyPier AnemoGen^TM air turbines that will result in an optimal cost per KWh.

An EnergyPier AnemoGen^TM unit

Example of a draft illustration of the EnergyPier solution

As the main technical elements of the EnergyPier solution are protected by intellectual property rights, this diagram is presented solely for illustration purpose

The purpose of the environmental balance sheet is to base the most important justification of the EnergyPier combined electric power plants project on firm ground: To contribute to prosperous and sustainable economic growth for all.

There are a number of tools to validate the sustainability of such a project, such as a LCA (Life-Cycle analysis), the environmental impact study, the carbon footprint balance sheet etc... These analysis are outside the scope of this website. Nevertheless, it is possible to anchor a solid evaluation by equating energy invested over a ratio of energy produced/gray energy, gray energy savings as well as by defining the project’s ancillary environmental effects with the evaluation of externalities it generates.

The ratios Invested Energy (produced energy/gray energy) and Saved Gray Energy are largely positive, whether the installation is located in a continental climate country or in a warm climate country.

Positive externalities allow to evaluate the adjunct effects of the project on the environment:

Non-existent chemical emissions
Noise emissions reduced by 5 to 8 db
Visual exposure integrating the structure into the landscape
Grid network management: facilitating the integration of sustainable energy into the grid
Impact on wildlife: tending to null
Other emissions (construction, decommissioning, recycling): very light

Returns on invested energy

Moderatly favorable geographic zone (e.g., Europe)

Ratio	Produced energy Gray energy
PV production only	> 13
PV production + Anemosystem™	> 19
PV production + Anemosystem™ + SAVED gray energy	> 20

Favorable geographic zone (e.g., Middle East)

Ratio	Produced energy Gray energy
PV production only	> 20
PV production + Anemosystem™	> 30
PV production + Anemosystem™ + SAVED gray energy	> 35

Comparison with alternative sustainable energy production methods

Traditional rooftop solar installation	Energypier
Ratio of energy produced to gray energy	Equivalent
Necessary number of power plants for industrial scale production	Higher
Additional benefits (reduction of environnemental impact)	Higher
Quantity of electrical power per installation	Higher

Industrial windmill installation	Energypier
Ratio of energy produced to gray energy incl saved grey energy	Equivalent
Wind turbulence	Higher
Noise and visual environmental impact	Lower
Impact on avian fauna	Lower

Sustainable energies are not mutually exclusive but are complementary.

Among the main considerations of energy transition in Switzerland is the compensation of the deficit created by the reduction of current production which due to the impending decommissioning of the country’s nuclear and thermal fleet and the fulfilment of the new needs for electrical energy resulting from the decarbonation of vehicle and commercial fleets, of heating as well as the increase of telecommuting.

In 2019, renewable sources of production, excluding hydroelectricity, amounted to 3 TWh / year. Despite their rapid ramp-up, the threshold of 25-35 TWh / year will only be reached with the addition of significant additional sources of production.

EnergyPier plants are therefore an important complementary solution. Assuming an average plant size corresponding to the A4- KW plant at the Knonauer Amt described above, around 250 EnergyPier plants will have to be constructed, spread out over the entire Swiss motorway network.

To respond to this diversity of possible scenarios, EnergyPier acts within a flexible structure which adapts to the needs and choices of its customers and partners in the designing and implementation of projects.

At the heart of the start-up that saw the birth and growth of the EnergyPier project, the EnergyPier Team is already active in advising on the initiatives the various players will take during the process leading to energy transition in Switzerland. It is ready to study all forms of collaboration on offer with a view to rapidly respond to the issues created by the energy transition.

In addition to its total commitment to building the power plants that Switzerland will need, the Swiss EnergyPier Team is also planning to deploy internationally.

Initially, the Team plans to consider certain European countries neighboring Switzerland, where the solution will be attractive as they struggle to divest from nuclear and high-impact CO2 fossil fuels.

Following this, the Team will investigate further afield, setting up local collaborations to identify, contribute knowledge and adapt it to countries with more essential needs in more favorable climatic conditions.

It follows that the opportunities will then be innumerable.

As was the case with hydropower plants, successive EnergyPier projects will result in the development of a bona fide Swiss combined power plant industry.

An industry with a global reach that will tackle the energy transition concerns that are felt throughout the world.