Innovation and technology must accompany the entire value chain. From local suppliers to end users. The driving companies that have participated in the II Forum Driving Companies: Advances in productivity and innovation, organized by elEconomista.es, have focused on the need to be sustainable and achieve an energy transition for the entire society. Likewise, to achieve these changes, all the firms that have participated in this second debate table have agreed on the importance of investment and the role played by the Government.
This colloquium has had the participation of Beatriz CrisostomoGlobal Director of Innovation and Environment at Iberdrola; Ramon Sendradirector of Works, Safety and Quality of Otis Iberia and Africa; Paloma Baena, director of Global Strategy at Renfe; and José Antonio LeónDirector of Institutional Relations at Stellantis.
All companies are focused on the energy transition. From Iberdrola, the dIberdrola’s Global Director of Innovation and Environment, Beatriz Crisóstomo, assures that betting on “therenewable wind energy and with the help of technology that has allowed us to get to where we are. In addition, we also accompany companies in this process.”
On the other hand, the mobility sector is also compromised. “We get ahead of the goal of zero emissions both in factories and in sales, and we agree goal 2030 so that our brands only sell zero-emission cars by then and for that you have to invest a lot of money,” highlights the director of Institutional Relations of Stellantis, José Antonio León. However, not everything is rosy, since “the market is a disaster. This May we are below the market share of Europe. We are worse this year than in 2023 and thus we cannot achieve our objectives,” he confirms.
In the words of Renfe’s Director of Global Strategy, Paloma Baena, “Renfe is the first consumer of renewable energy in Spain, representing 0.4% of the sector’s emissions. We have reduced it by 90% so far, and we are working to be zero emissions by 2050. To achieve this, we are testing hydrogen and liquefied natural gas trains.” Baena has taken the opportunity to highlight that “the railway is a form of decarbonize the economy and that is why it has been one of the great beneficiaries of European funds. Of the 100 largest beneficiaries, the vast majority are public and in general all are related to the railway, because they allow the EU’s objectives to be met.”
However, public aid is not reaching everyone equally. León points out that “there are problems that we manufacturers cannot solve, and that is why we have to ask for help from other companies and the Government. For example, there is a lack of charging points, because there are many that are not of high capacity or that are not operational. , and this is where you have to change because the client is afraid to travel. On the other hand, the price is also key. The MOVES Plan is good a priori, but it is not working, because it is not practical. The Spanish park is aging and that is what really pollutes. Likewise, taxation must help. “It cannot be that in Portugal, the VAT on electric cars is 0%.”
Chrysostom expresses something similar. When it comes to solar energy, “public aid works worse than the MOVES Plan. It is true that There are half a million houses that already have solar panels and this is a great revolution; However, aid arrives very late and the user and companies have to advance the money,” he asserts.
In general terms, regulation is complex. This is explained by the director of Works, Safety and Quality of Otis Iberia and Africa, Ramón Sendra, since on July 1 a regulation comes into force that makes elevators more demanding in terms of safety. “Safety standards are going to be increased so that they are equal to the elevators that are leaving factories that consume less than a microwave. We connect to solar panels“, alleges Sendra. And he adds that “we have done a great job in R&D development; but simplification and unification of regulatory changes is needed.”
