Whitesteps SA
Rue Pierre-Aeby 20 Fribourg, 1702 Switzerland, Fribourg, Switzerland

Renewable Energy

The Country Attractiveness Indices track and rank 40 countries' renewable energy markets across a selection of technologies each quarter. Developed countries are focused on slowing demand and cutting costs, while rapid growth markets have a huge appetite for energy. A revolution is underway, and the renewable energy industry is adapting to a changed world.

This is why Whitesteps is actively involved in building the renewable energy sector.

Every country in the world needs electricity, Water & Waste Management

Whitesteps understood that industrials lose in competitivity when presenting a sole solution that resolves a single need. There are always other interesting topics on a political agenda that a combined and adaptable solution might resolve in one go if dimensioned and sourced properly.

Renewable energy provides 19% of electricity generation worldwide. Renewable power generators are spread across many countries, and wind power alone already provides a significant share of electricity in some areas: for example, 14% in the U.S. state of Iowa, 40% in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, and 20% in Denmark. Some countries get most of their power from renewables, including Iceland and Paraguay (100%), Norway (98%), Brazil (86%), New Zealand (65%), Austria (62%), and Sweden (54%).

With Renewable energy from Wind and Waste combined, we are able to offer good, clean energy to a country for its top of the agenda problem to solve.

The Challenge

Innovate and invest

No innovation without tackling climate change. Innovation is therefore at the forefront of energy projects. Making the right choices here is vital. And retrieve finance for the project is not the least of them. Energy projects are ideal for public funding. You can think of grants, preferential loans, credits, funds and guarantees.

Energy Topics

Whitesteps specialises in “energy and waste innovation management and funding. Our specialists are familiar with the following themes:
Wind Energy
Bio Energy
CCS (CO2 storage, capture and infrastructure)
Solar Energy
Smart Grids (Smart power grid)
Smart Cities (Cities or regions with a focus on space, energy and mobility)
Sustainable Construction
Recycling
Crade-to-cradle developments

Professionals in Energy, Innovation and Financing

Whitesteps works in the areas of generation, distribution and transportation of natural gas and electricity. In our client portfolio you will also find organizations in the field of sustainable power generation and technology development. Our experts have a background in the energy industry or are environmentalists. On the one hand we have extensive experience with energy issues relevant to you. On the other hand we have a great network around these themes. With our expert eye and extensive experience in large, international, enterprises businesses, we increase your chances of your energy project financing.

Turning innovation into competitive advantage

The shifting competitive conditions are changing how CEOs seek growth. After several years looking to increase their share in core markets, CEOs are this year turning towards driving growth through new products and services. Innovation is key to success both for businesses in recent high growth markets where competitive cost advantages is steadily decreasing and, more critically, in European or US markets expecting modest growth.

Waste Management

The enormous increase in the quantum and diversity of waste materials generated by human activity and their potentially harmful effects on the general environment and public health, have led to an increasing awareness about an urgent need to adopt scientific methods for safe disposal of wastes. While there is an obvious need to minimize the generation of wastes and to reuse and recycle them, the technologies for recovery of energy from wastes can play a vital role in mitigating the problems. Besides recovery of substantial energy, these technologies can lead to a substantial reduction in the overall waste quantities requiring final disposal, which can be better managed for safe disposal in a controlled manner while meeting the pollution control standards.

Waste-to-energy plants offer two important benefits of environmentally safe waste management and disposal, as well as the generation of clean electric power. Waste-to-energy facilities produce clean, renewable energy through thermochemical, biochemical and physicochemical methods. The growing use of waste-to-energy as a method to dispose off solid and liquid wastes and generate power has greatly reduced environmental impacts of municipal solid waste management, including emissions of greenhouse gases. Waste-to-energy conversion reduces greenhouse gas emissions in two ways. Electricity is generated which reduces the dependence on electrical production from power plants based on fossil fuels. The greenhouse gas emissions are significantly reduced by preventing methane emissions from landfills. Moreover, waste-to-energy plants are highly efficient in harnessing the untapped sources of energy from a variety of wastes.

An environmentally sound and techno-economically viable methodology to treat biodegradable waste is highly crucial for the sustainability of modern societies. A transition from conventional energy systems to one based on renewable resources is necessary to meet the ever-increasing demand for energy and to address environmental concerns.

Water Managment

Seawater accounts for 97% of the water on earth. Since almost 60% of the world’s population lives less than 60 km from a maritime coast, seawater is poised to become one of the main alternative resources in those regions in the next several decades. In arid coastal regions, desalination can augment available water resources. It also has the advantage of reducing water dependency on other regions and eliminating the need to import and transport water over long distances.

Should a country want to create fresh water for distribution, new sources of energy need to be implemented as to clean the water for the population. We have integrated a full “stand-alone” solution where we combine clean energy resources to be used to desalinate water pumped from the sea. This solution is not only economically viable, but also enviornmentally compelling as the energy produced is 100% green and eco friendly.

Excess energy, not used for the desalination could be injected into the actual electricity grid for a higher capacity distribution throughout the existing electricity network.

Combining new water sources with green energy sources is today the ultimate solution for every government in the world having water and energy issues on the agenda. We offer this solution to countries around the globe.

Enersys & (Generator Energy Mangement System)

The Problem

Diesel Generators providing power to GSM Radio Base Stations in permanent basis (24/365) are an important sink of expenditure. Equipment cost, refueling, preventive and corrective maintenance all bring significant expenditure to the operators. Usually a generator for such applications has a nominal power rating dimensioned to be 2 to 3 times the maximum possible consumption of the Radio Base Station. But maximum possible consumption is rarely achieved and for rather short periods. Eventually, the generator most of the time works with a very small loads, therefore having very low efficiency. The lower the load, the poorer the efficiency, as it can be seen in the following diagram, for a typical 20kVA genset.

The Concept

Important Parameters:

1.The biggest loads in a Radio Base Station are the air-conditioners.
2.Cooling requirements during the night are lower,consequently energy requirements are also lower.
3.Noise produced by the genset is more annoying.

Concept of Operation:

1.During the day the genset provides power to the equipment and charges the hybrid mode batteries.
2.During the night the genset stops and power to the equipment is provided by the hybrid mode batteries.

The Solution

GEM exists in two different versions; the first uses the existing DC power supply with additional batteries, to provide enough capacity for the discharging during hybrid mode operation. The second version introduces a UPS between the genset and the Radio Base Station that provides the necessary autonomy to the equipment during the discharge.
GEM has a sophisticated control system that monitors all critical parameters of the Radio Base Station
Temperature inside the shelter
Temperature outside the shelter
Status of the batteries
Time of the day
Gensets are stopped according to the monitored parameters and user settings
There is only one discharge per day (night)
The time of the day that the discharge starts can be controlled dynamically, when the night is hot discharge is delayed
If more than one gensets exist, they are activated to the following rules
Operating time balance
Exclusion of gensets with failure
The GEM control system offers also excellent remote monitoring and control functionality:
Detailed logging of fuel consumption and refueling volumes
Detailed logging of energy consumption
Monitoring of DC power supply status and alarms
Air condition monitoring
Monitoring of other alarms, like intrusion, flood, pylon light failure etc

Prerequisites

The following conditions must apply in a Radio Base Station to allow for the installation of GEM.
A telecom grade air-conditioner must be installed, having free cooling operation capability.
This type of equipment can offer very energy efficient operation, permitting a slower discharge of the batteries.
Free space inside the shelter that will be used for the installation of equipment and batteries.

Benefits

The genset operates with increased load, having better efficiency, thus achieving fuel consumption reduction.
The genset reduces its operation time by 33%, increasing maintenance intervals and equipment lifetime.