2023-07-13 06:30:11
The National Public Establishment (EPN) of Mont Saint-Michel has embarked on a project to “green” its fleets of vehicles intended for the transport of visitors. A process initiated last year with the conversion of twelve diesel shuttles to a more virtuous fuel than diesel: hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO). Supported by the NextMove competitiveness cluster, the EPN du Mont Saint-Michel intends to continue to dig this furrow and has thus been awarded the NextMove 2023 Trophy in the category “Safe, autonomous, connected mobility & new mobility solutions”.
For this flagship site of the French tourist landscape, remarkable both in terms of heritage and the environment, gradually converting its fleet of vehicles to cleaner energies was self-evident. Less obvious, however, was the selection of the most technically and financially relevant technical options. To continue its virtuous approach initiated by the transition to HVO for its entire fleet, the EPN du Mont Saint-Michel has thus called on the expertise of the NextMove competitiveness cluster to draw up – in record time – a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of each of the possible technical routes.
If nothing is recorded for the time being, one solution seems to stand out: that of electrical retrofitting. Significant R&D work is nevertheless still necessary to clarify the feasibility and the conditions for carrying out the operation to convert the fleet to electric, as explained to us by Mickaël Savin, Mobility project manager for the EPN du Mont- Saint Michel.
Engineering Techniques: What are the main routes taken by visitors to access Mont Saint-Michel? What fleet of vehicles have you set up to transport them?
Mickaël Savin is one of the linchpins of the vast greening project led by the EPN du Mont Saint-Michel. © NextMove
Michael Savin: We manage two main lines of access to the site for visitors. First of all, we provide public management of the “Passeur” line, which goes from the car parks to Mont. We also have a second line that connects the site to Pontorson station.
We now have sixteen vehicles in all, which are divided into two distinct categories. The first consists of twelve reversible vehicles, called “Passeurs”, very special vehicles, recognizable by their wooden cladding, which bring visitors from the car parks to the Mont. They are unique in France. These buses are indeed adapted to the constraints specific to our site, the first of them being the impossibility of having two vehicles cross each other on the access road at the foot of the Mont… We therefore decided to acquire these reversible vehicles to facilitate operation, especially during peak periods, in high season. We welcome an average of 600 to 670,000 vehicles per year in our car parks…
For the second line that I mentioned, the one that connects the Mont to the SNCF station, we use a second type of vehicle: Mercedes Citaro K buses. We had three of them and have acquired a fourth early June. Indeed, we have more and more people using the line, especially in summer.
The “Passeur” line is served by twelve reversible vehicles specially designed for the needs of Mont Saint-Michel. Vehicles whose diesel engines are now powered by a frying oil derivative (DR).
What prompted you to start this process of “greening” your fleet? What actions have you taken so far in this direction?
This approach is the result of the conjunction of several factors that I will detail, but was above all supported and amplified by our CEO. We then took advantage of a change of dealership to initiate the process, by changing the fuel on all of our vehicles. We have switched since October 20, 2022 to hydrotreated vegetable oil, or HVO[1]. We have thought about this subject for more than two years. Whatever happened, we would have made this transition one day, but the change of concession contract was an opportunity that we seized.
Mont Saint-Michel is a remarkable site both from a heritage and environmental point of view. We therefore could not afford to continue to operate diesel vehicles bringing visitors to the Mont… We were aware of this ourselves and the visitors had pointed this out to us.
We were initially ready to opt for B100, a biofuel comparable to HVO. However, we ended up opting for this HVO solution on the advice of our concessionaire operating the lines, Keolis Mont-Saint-Michel. The economic benefits, but also the ecological ones, in terms of polluting emissions, were in fact greater: HVO reduces greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 90%. It also reduces exhaust pollutant emissions: for example, this fuel reduces fine particle emissions by 33%, carbon monoxide emissions by 24% and unburned hydrocarbon emissions by 30% ( HC).
The other advantage of the HVO is that it does not require any engine changes, only minor modifications, such as the replacement of the tanks. This allowed us to implement the solution very quickly, in just ten days!
Finally, this HVO comes from used frying oils, and therefore helps preserve virgin agricultural resources. We get our supplies in the Netherlands, therefore at European level, and no longer from oil-producing countries… These oils are processed in the factory on site, then transported by boat to the port of Le Havre, and finally transported to us. .
In our greening process, however, switching to HVO is only a first step. We therefore called on the expertise of NextMove, which wrote a report indicating in particular that an electrical retrofit would be the best solution for our use case and the resulting technical constraints. However, we have not yet finalized the transition to this solution. Other choices are indeed possible, such as the purchase of new vehicles, or the hydrogen option, even if this solution does not seem to us to be sufficiently mature for the time being. In any case, we are not closed to any possibility. Our current vehicles are only halfway through their lives. We will therefore only launch this second phase in the next few years. Moreover, this cannot be done in the very short term for another reason: several years of R&D will be necessary.
So you have probably not yet initiated a technical reflection on this second phase…
Well, actually… Yes! Last year, at the same time as our approach around the HVO, we launched a technical reflection on the electric retrofit of our vehicles in the Passeur line. We have met companies specializing in this field, which have started to provide solutions. However, this has been put on hold. The reflection is in any case launched, with already technical data and elements on the financial plan.
What was the role of NextMove in the reflection that you led around the greening of your fleet of vehicles?
When we initiated our reflection on the greening of our fleet, we first worked internally, with the support of expert companies. However, we had difficulty in summarizing the advantages and disadvantages of the various solutions considered, and in validating our initial conclusions. NextMove therefore accompanied us, through a study, in the selection of these technical greening solutions and enabled us to initiate a reflection on the strategy to adopt to implement this approach. Given the fairly tight timing, the study mainly focused on our Passeur line and its double-cabin vehicles. NextMove supported us in identifying technical solutions, in questions related to cost, but also in the deployment schedule for these different technologies. This provided us with essential insight into our future investment choices. NextMove also enabled us to benefit from a network of experts, who also informed us in our choices. The study was carried out, as I said, in a very short time. However, the rendering turned out to be very qualitative. We are therefore fully satisfied with this collaboration. If we have the opportunity, in the future, to renew this type of approach, we will gladly do so. We plan to extend our greening project to all of our vehicles. We have the power to act on this plan, but also on other related aspects, such as parking. For example, we have decided to install charging stations for electric vehicles in our car parks. We can’t control the entire movement chain, but we are improving all the aspects that we have our hands on. We want to move towards cleaner, more sustainable energies, which are in line with the environmental challenges specific to Mont Saint-Michel.
On June 22, Mickaël Savin received the NextMove 2023 Trophy on behalf of the EPN du Mont Saint-Michel in the category “Safe, autonomous, connected mobility & new mobility solutions”. A distinction awarded by Florence Guillaume, interministerial delegate for road safety. © Julien Tragin
How do you welcome this trophy which has just been given to you?
Receiving this award was quite unexpected for us. However, it is of course with pleasure that we receive it. This award will allow us to be more visible to companies, to let them know that we are working on this subject, that we are carrying out discussions that could lead us, one day, to ask them to help and support us. in the face of the strong ambitions of setting an example that we have with regard to questions of mobility.
This NextMove trophy will thus allow us to gain visibility and reach a wider target audience, both on the side of companies and experts.
[1] Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil
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