Energy Transition – Creating new opportunities for the future
Energy Transition: creating new opportunities for the future
14/04/2021 – Transformation
In order to be at the forefront in a world diversifying its energy sources, Vallourec is positioning itself in the market of low-carbon solutions by drawing on its sense of industrial excellence and innovation in five key areas.
For Vallourec, embracing renewable energies is a way of achieving new sources of profitable long-term growth. Five segments were identified as being the most promising in relation to the Group’s markets, customers, products and services, which are: CCUS, hydrogen, wind power, geothermal energy and solar power. Its goals, focusing on the Group’s future challenges and transformation, are to innovate, forge strategic partnerships, benefit from the continued acquisition of new skills, identify new markets and consolidate them to achieve a significant impact on its turnover by 2025.
Carbon reduction is possible either naturally, through forestry assets such as those owned by Vallourec in Brazil which reduce its carbon footprint, or artificially, through the creation of carbon sinks using CCUS technology. In the case of CCUS, the group is putting its expertise to good use by deploying its highly corrosion-resistant tubes, while stepping up its R&D and innovation efforts to adapt its tubular solutions to the transport and injection of CO2, as well as its smart tubes to downhole monitoring and measurement.
To seize all the opportunities of a market which is growing strongly but has not yet reached full maturity, Vallourec is expanding its hydrogen infrastructure offering using the know-how it has acquired in the oil and gas markets. Its product range includes tubes and sealed connections for underground hydrogen storage and pipeline transportation, complemented by asset conversion assistance services for hydrogen networks. In collaboration with selected partners, Vallourec also develops and supplies components and solutions for high-pressure hydrogen distribution to refueling stations.
Vallourec has been supplying secondary steel tubes for offshore wind farms for several years now. Meanwhile, in order to control its innovation investments, Vallourec also aims to forge partnerships with public partners.
Thanks to its OCTG tubes, Vallourec has been supporting the development of geothermal projects around the world for almost 30 years by providing solutions able to withstand ever-increasing depths and temperatures. Its ambition is now to double its revenues in this sector by 2025. It plans to do so by improving identification of customer needs in order to design a dedicated range of geothermal products and services, becoming recognized as a leading partner within the community of international experts and increasing its capacity to participate in turnkey projects all around the world.
Very recently, the Californian company GreenFire Energy selected Vallourec THERMOCASETM VIT for a very innovative project using their new GreenLoop™ technology. This new technology eliminates the need for two wells in conventional geothermal power plants, making closed-loop systems more efficient and profitable.
By combining its long-span seamless steel tubes and its rapid, scalable and modular PREON® Box design software, Vallourec is involved in the design and manufacture of steel structures for photovoltaic applications around the world, including photovoltaic shades for parking lots, agricultural and industrial storage sheds with solar roofs, agrovoltaic, solar power plants by rivers, etc. One example of its commitment to this new market is the upcoming delivery to its French customer Vertsun of tubular solutions for photovoltaic agricultural storage sheds. Combined with the flexibility of Preon® Box, and the high performance of its MSH tubes in terms of robustness, load capacity and weldability, was a key differentiating factor in securing the contract.
