Research into environmental innovation

The “research & solutions” programme of the lab recherche environnement laboratory is based on a simple principle: when VINCI employees identify an issue, they can request the support of researchers to study the development of unique and concrete solutions to the challenges of the ecological transition within their business.

Turning roads into energy sources

Alongside researchers from Mines Paris - PSL, employees of Eurovia, a subsidiary of VINCI Construction, have developed energy simulation tools to assess the contribution of  Power Road® to a building’s energy efficiency. The predictive models developed by the researchers can be used to size and optimize such a system from the urban project design phase. 

Turning roads into energy sources

Roads have a new function: producing renewable heat. Road surfaces capture energy and heat up under the sun’s rays. With Power Road, this solar energy is captured and potentially stored to be returned to the surrounding constructions and infrastructures (swimming pools, buildings, businesses, etc.) via a heat pump system. This heat can also be used in winter to defrost and deice roads or airport roads or runways and thereby reduce salting operations. In summer, by capturing heat, the road surfaces are cooled and this helps absorb urban heat islands through surface heat capture.

When urban vegetation cools buildings

Resallience, VINCI Construction’s design office dedicated to urban resilience in the context of climate change, joined forces with Mines Paris – PSL and AgroParisTech to study the impact of green islands in cities on the thermal behaviour of buildings. Although the cooling effects of urban green spaces are well known, their effects on the inside temperature of buildings were yet to be demonstrated. The two schools developed several simulations, combining assessment of cooling generated by a green space with the energy simulation of the building. An invaluable, multi-disciplinary collaboration in the eyes of Bruno Peuportier, Director of Research at Mines Paris-PSL: “Having a research chair devoted to eco-design covering the energy efficiency of buildings, biodiversity and mobility is very rare, even internationally.” The Research & Solutions programme quantified and confirmed the benefits of green islands for thermal comfort in summer and for the health of inhabitants, provided that buildings are properly insulated and ventilated. 

Decarbonizing freight transport by road

Freight transport in France accounts for 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions and takes place mainly by road. To reduce the carbon impact of this activity, VINCI Autoroutes has designed DaaS (Decarbonation as a Service). 

In real terms, DaaS proposes to carry goods using decarbonized lorries (static or dynamic charge electric, bioGNV or hydrogen) on sections of the motorway network. Freight is taken from point A to point B in a “decarbonation corridor”. The carrier must organize its logistics flows to carry goods from point A, and collect them at point B and complete the journey. To tackle the complexity of implementation and the socio-economic relevance of this idea, VINCI Autoroutes called upon the École des Ponts Paris Tech and Gustave-Eiffel University as part of the Research and solutions programme. “We are conducting a micro-economic study to see if it is worthwhile for the operators to use this service and at what price, and to measure the resulting cost of reducing CO2”, explains Louis du Pasquier, Director of Low-Carbon Mobility Solutions at VINCI Autoroutes. The results will determine the roll-out of the solution. 

Artificial intelligence supporting the energy efficiency of buildings

It’s difficult to ignore the progress of artificial intelligence in all business sectors. But for artificial intelligence to make appropriate decisions, it needs to be trained. And this poses the question of the availability of reliable and complete data. École des Mines Paris – PSL needed to have access to data for a research project on technical building management systems, which control the equipment on a site. The challenge was to obtain data on energy usage, train an AI and propose energy-saving solutions that would not compromise the comfort of users of the space. The school then teamed up with VINCI Facilities, a subsidiary of VINCI Energies. “We provided all the data on the building and its complex operation,” explains Mathieu Rigaud, manager of the TwinOps programme at VINCI Facilities. The project is a successful example of how research is enmeshed with the corporate world: the former needs material for experimentation and data, while the latter needs scientific analysis models to improve its processes.