Energy transition, saving money and energy, solar panels… Michel Juston, Director of Development at Green Technologie, talks to us about his career, Green Technologie, the company’s goals, and its current and future projects. Interview…
Tell us what led you to work in the renewable energy sector and about your career path…
I have a background in business and attended business school. After that, I worked in sales, where I climbed the ranks. After gaining experience in the sales world, I set off on a trip around the world, which opened my eyes to many things and reconnected me with my core values. When I returned to Martinique, I founded my first IT company, which aimed to position itself as an intermediary in the integration of renewable energy. Unfortunately, that project didn’t come to fruition, which led me to Green Technologie today. I already had the vision that the renewable energy market needed competent players and needed to be restructured. I met the manager of Green Technologie, Frantz EBADERE, and we started working together. I really focused on the development and growth aspects of the’the company.
Le meilleur kilowatt-heure (kWh) de transition énergétique qui existe c’est le kWh non consommé.
What is Green Technologie?
It is a startup founded in 2013 by Frantz EBADERE, who began with the following observation: Our region must build its capabilities in a number of areas in order to achieve greater well-being, a better quality of life, and improved performance. A region must organize itself, and to do so, its population must be able to feed itself, be educated, and manage its own energy. Green Technologie was therefore created to focus on energy because the energy transition offers us the opportunity to restructure and reclaim control over our energy. In fact, the idea is that the best kilowatt-hour (kWh) of the energy transition is the one that isn’t consumed.. This means that the first step is to develop energy awareness. Everyone should be able to understand what a kilowatt-hour is and what it means.
Are you referring to voluntary simplicity?
Exactly. Everyone today knows how to use a phone. Ten years ago, no one had that skill. Energy is exactly the same. We need to give everyone this knowledge so they can take ownership of the issue. What drives us at Green Technologie is, first and foremost, raising awareness, conducting an audit, and finally supporting our clients to help them reduce their energy consumption. Once we’ve sustainably and significantly reduced energy consumption, that’s when we can invest in solar panels.
And do you offer this awareness-raising service?
We position ourselves as an energy transition provider with a comprehensive approach that spans everything from planning and design to implementation. Before installing solar panels, we ask our customers, «Are you sure you have the right lighting, the right air conditioning, the right insulation, etc.?». Before asking these questions, the customer wanted a 10-kWp system, but afterward, they only needed a 4-kWp system. And the best part is that the difference in energy consumption will pay for the system.
You sell solar panels, but do you offer an energy storage system?
We have systems with and without storage. This is a fundamental issue, since storage is expensive and highly polluting. For a homeowner, it’s often very useful for security reasons. For a business that generally operates during daylight hours, once consumption has been reduced, the photovoltaic system can be sized so that a battery isn’t needed, since we know that all of the electricity generated will be consumed by the building.
Specifically, what projects are you currently working on?
One-third of the energy consumed in Martinique comes from buildings, and two-thirds from vehicles. So if we want to achieve a comprehensive energy transition in our territory, we need to focus on both buildings and vehicles. We aim to ensure that solar power plants charge electric vehicles as efficiently as possible. That is our «KARIB’DRIVE» project.
Today, we take an electric vehicle and plug it into an EDF outlet. Even if we’ve implemented energy-saving measures, we’re still consuming fossil fuels. To enter a virtuous cycle, we need to install solar panels to charge electric vehicles. Our innovation lies in integrating electric vehicles into a «smart grid» system for buildings. This means we’ll link the power plant to a building so that the plant generates the electricity the vehicles will consume. The key insight was that when a vehicle is charging, it will draw power from the power plant and, if necessary, from the grid. When the car is unplugged, all the energy produced by the power plant charges the batteries and powers the building. Today we have about forty projects underway because it’s profitable.
You have about forty projects underway, so are the people of Martinique receptive to this change?
At first, we were naive enough to believe that the environmental cause alone was enough, but it wasn’t. So we framed our message in terms of economic value without ever losing sight of the values that drive us: working for the environment and enabling the people of Martinique to reclaim control over their energy and economic activity. Another major opportunity that the energy transition offers us is that it creates new skilled jobs that drive economic growth. Seen from this perspective, the people of Martinique are very receptive to this energy transition.
You talk a lot about the energy transition in the business sector, but do you do the same for individual consumers?
As a business, we’ve focused on corporate clients primarily because energy savings are a significant factor. The economic reality for businesses is much more significant than it is for individual consumers. For now, we’re not making the transition to serving individual consumers, and that’s a shortcoming, but we will do so. We’re keeping that in mind. It’s up to us to develop solutions for homeowners that are both effective and cost-effective—for them and for us.
Wind power—have you thought about that?
Today we mainly use photovoltaics because it is the most advanced technology and the easiest to implement. In the future, it might be something else—we’ll see. What’s certain is that we’re keeping a close eye on all other renewable energy sources so we can implement them at our stations.
Mariska Desmarquis
Website: greentechnologie.net/
Contact: contact@Greentechnologie.net
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