Harnessing the Sun
Schneider ElectricBy Robert Hoshowsky
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Tracing its roots back to the steel industry, almost 180 years ago, when brothers Adolphe and Joseph-Eugene Schneider took over an abandoned foundry in Le Creusot, France, the company bearing their name has grown and diversified to become a highly respected worldwide enterprise. Today, Schneider Electric is a multinational group that produces components for energy management and designs systems for electricity distribution and automation.
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The company became known as the Schneider Group and, in 1975, acquired an interest in Merlin Gerin, an established French manufacturer of electrical distribution equipment. In the decades to follow, the company refocused its interests on the electrical industry and made a number of successful acquisitions including Telemecanique, Square D and Lexel – a large European supplier of control solutions and installation systems – before renaming the group to Schneider Electric in May of 1999.
Through its acquisitions, Schneider Electric has transformed itself while it has targeted a number of areas in the distribution of electricity, along with automation and industrial control. As a global specialist and leader in energy management, it has also expanded into renewable sources of energy, such as solar.
In 2008, the company added to its portfolio in renewables when it acquired Canadian company Xantrex, a leading player in solar and wind inverters. “It focused on inverter technology in three business areas: renewable, programmable and mobile,” says Schneider Electric’s Solar Business Vice President of Operations and CFO Jill Tipping.
The move enabled Schneider Electric – with its wide international footprint – to utilize Xantrex’s dedicated solar and wind access channels, relationships with numerous key customers and mastery of power electronics for renewable energy applications such as inverters – the ‘brains’ behind solar energy systems.
Existing Xantrex staff members were brought over to Schneider, with the goal of growing the existing and successful research and development business. As a pioneer in devising electrical solutions, Schneider recognized the suitability between the two companies and the need to explore sustainable energy sources.
Ms. Tipping, with Schneider for eight years, says the company has been active in the solar energy field since around 2005 and is involved in other renewable areas, such as wind. “One of Schneider’s strategies is to be green,” she says. “The company slogan is ‘Make the most of your energy,’ and it encompasses the concept of energy-saving and efficiency – which is very much at the center of what we do – and green credentials are also important.”
With ever increasing demands for power worldwide, particularly in countries without stable electrical grids, Schneider saw the need for solar investment. Rather than having energy generated in a huge power plant and being channeled to customers, the company is actively looking at solutions where solar energy can be generated as needed.
As part of its commitment to solar energy, Schneider Engineering invested $13 million into its state of the art lab. The MicroGrid Lab was built for the design and testing of Schneider Electric’s revolutionary utility-scale solar plant platform, the SE1.
Schneider Electric’s Senior Vice President and CEO of Solar Business Laurent Bataille said, at the official opening: “It’s going to be a technology step that will bring Schneider, as one of the few players in the solar market, able to complete globally, and be one of the few bankable leaders in the solar equipment market.”
Also on hand at the event was the Honourable Christy Clark, premier of British Columbia who also spoke of Schneider’s significant, multi-million dollar investment and its positive effects for the ‘green future’ of British Columbia and Burnaby.
In the spirit of collaboration and teamwork, the massive 20,000 square foot MicroGrid Lab went from the discussion stage, in August of 2013, to completion in a very short time; by December, it was complete and already in use. “It was astonishingly fast,” says Ms. Tipping of the process. She nominated the team responsible for its construction for the BCTIA Technology Impact Awards, which Schneider Electric then won for 2014’s Team of the Year.
“We won, partly because of the scale of the achievement and what it contributes to the BC economy, but fundamentally we won because of what an amazing achievement it was to manage to do it in that timescale.”
At present, there are about two hundred and fifty people working in the company’s Burnaby office, with about five hundred workers in the solar business unit and others in the manufacturing plants.
A constituent part of the company’s SE1 program for a 1,500 volt DC solar equipment solution, the MicroGrid Lab cost approximately $13 million before the Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax credit, a very valuable funding source for Schneider. A number of locations, including California, were considered prior to Burnaby but, in the end, the decision was made that British Columbia was the best choice since it enabled the closest proximity to the engineering team handling most of the work on the lab.
With the MicroGrid Lab having its own 5 MW substation, the company is capable of getting power from three different DC sources and four different AC sources (one of which is the grid).
The company was challenged with not only creating the lab itself, but in adapting other areas of the 100,000 square-foot building in Burnaby. The air-conditioning system is located to handle heat dissipation from the lab when working on a full load. Using about as much power as a downtown condominium (some 900 kW) the state of the art building recirculates power into the grid whenever possible. Additionally, other environmental initiatives were undertaken to qualify the project for LEED silver status, such as LED lighting, low-flow toilets, reusing doors and other materials.
Schneider Electric’s ambitious and revolutionary new SE1 platform is geared to be brought to market in early 2016, making the company, “the solar equipment supplier of choice in the global marketplace.”
As one of the companies in British Columbia’s innovative clean technology sector, Schneider Electric’s solar products may be designed in Burnaby, but are intended to benefit the entire planet, not only leading provinces in solar energy adoption and implementations such as Ontario and British Columbia.
It is not only established countries which stand to benefit from solar power, says Ms. Tipping, but emerging economies. Sunbelt nations, such as South Africa, India, Brazil and Thailand, require sources of power to fuel economic growth, but currently do not necessarily have stable grids or sufficient well-established sources of power.
Meanwhile, stable economies, such as Germany and Japan, are turning away from nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster and are making commitments to solar energy. “The solar industry is moving to the next phase – away from tax incentives,” she says, adding that they, “are pushing costs to a point where solar becomes a significant and competitive source of energy.”
For many years, one of the biggest challenges facing solar energy has been storage. While working on a number of products which allow small-scale applications, Schneider is also addressing technological challenges inherent in large, utility-scale energy storage. As solar generation becomes an increasingly significant source of power, Schneider Electric will continue to maintain its competitive advantage, through its close relationships with a number of utilities.
Completed on-time and on-budget, the MicroGrid Lab not only enables the company to keep jobs in British Columbia and create new jobs with the next generation of grid tie inverters, but further Schneider’s unwavering commitment to green initiatives.
“Solar is a strategic investment for Schneider Electric based on potential. We are at a tipping point now for solar; up until now, the cost per kilowatt hour of electricity hasn’t been so competitive with other sources of energy, but now there are many markets in the world where solar is as cheap as energy from the grid. And every week and month that passes, we are adding new markets there and, as that happens, you hit the exponential growth part of the curve.”
As recognized global leaders, the company continues to devise systems and solutions to help the world do better with less energy. As energy demand skyrockets and calls to reduce greenhouse gas emissions continue, Schneider Electric takes pride working with clients today on energy-efficient solutions for the future.