“Solar farms are getting closer one by one to the production of a nuclear power plant,” rejoices the director of the Bouygues subsidiary, Equans

Bouygues’ largest subsidiary specializes in energy. Its general director, Jérôme Stubler, presents to us the various activities which enable Equans to participate in “crossing 30% of renewable energy in the world”.

Today, the Bouygues group’s largest subsidiary is neither in the construction sector nor in the public works sector, but in energy. Bought by Bouygues from Engie almost three years ago, Equans is performing well, with growth of around 5% in one year.

Franceinfo : What explains the success of Equans?

Jerome Stubler : We are in a buoyant market. Equans, with 90,000 employees, is one of the largest companies in the energy and services sectors in the world.

“Equans has a turnover of nearly 19 billion euros, which makes us a company on the same level as Thalès.”

Jerome Stubler

at franceinfo

And it’s an incredible energy transition that is happening, these are energy transformation needs. This year we reached 30% renewable energy worldwide. We participate, we build solar farms, we transport energy by making high voltage lines, and we help decarbonize companies, one by one. And to do this, we must push them to consume more electricity and less gas, that is to say, to electrify their use of energy.

You offer different energy services. What are your fastest growing markets?

There is an area that is experiencing very strong growth, which is that of the data center (data storage center). With artificial intelligence arriving and the concentration of data, in fact, we consume less energy when we concentrate the data in a data center rather than dispersing it.

But it consumes a lot of energy.

Yes, but less than if we disperse them. Another area that is experiencing very strong growth is the production of very large solar farms. They are starting to approach the production of a nuclear power plant.

In which country in particular? Do you need land?

In Australia, a solar farm of nearly 500 megawatts is being built. There is indeed space and sunshine. And then another area which is also experiencing strong growth is electric vehicles, where we are working on battery gigafactories in Sweden, France and the United States. In France, we have three gigafactories, where we work on what we call “utilities”. These are the energy systems which will produce dry air, heat or cold, to be able to manufacture these batteries in optimal conditions in terms of cleanliness and climate system.

Today, how are your activities distributed?

Since the start of the year, our order book has continued to grow. It is made of 800,000 items. We work for many sectors of activity: for industry, for transport, for energy production, for energy transport. So it’s lots of small businesses, and some big businesses, like gigafactories. And we achieve 96% of our turnover in Europe: in France, Belgium, Switzerland, England, the Netherlands. And then to the United States and Canada.

The United States is very proactive and goes to different companies to tell them to come to them. Are your European customers looking to the United States?

The United States is a market that effectively provides incentives for the energy transition. They are making big investments in electric vehicles, to strengthen their electricity network and also today in hydrogen. So all of this means that we have strong growth markets. We work a lot, for example, on heat pumps.

“We have one of the largest heat pump factories in the United States, which allows us to massively decarbonize shopping centers.”

Jerome Stubler

at franceinfo

We are bringing a new energy system with quite incredible efficiency. Geothermal energy is even used in the United States to pump energy into the ground and reduce the electricity consumed.

Is this a rapidly growing market for you at Equans today?

The United States is a market that has one of the strongest growth rates in the world.

Your profitability is today below 3%. You want to increase it to 4% this year, 5% next year. How do you plan to go about it?

Something that is very important for the Bouygues group is to work with respect for our employees. We motivate our employees to succeed and we share the value created with them. It actually creates motivation that makes our teams work harder and improves profitability. Then, we work on all aspects of improving profitability. We have a plan, we are exactly on our plan, so for the moment things are going pretty well.

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