The size and extension of photovoltaic planta difficult their inspection and maintenance.

 

Many tasks, performed manually or semi-manually to this day, must be digitalized or supported by technology with the goal of automatizing and reducing costs, both in the maintenance and in the data and information compiling of the plants.

In order to analyze the viability of a road project and for its posterior operation, it is key to know in great detail the portential user market.

New technologies allow the anonymous tracking of mobile phone signals, both from the telephone network as through Bluetooth and Wifi. This allows to identify routes, road tolls if there’d be, and also the trip frequency.

This allows to make better market research, improving the limitations of traditional user polls, whilst also improving the operation: better knowledge of travel patterns allows to anticipate traffic control necessities in real time.

In the future, highway operations, specially in the metropolitan area, will include intelligent traffic management (within the intelligent transport systems), with complex prioritization of information and control measures (such as the ‘managed lanes’ from the USA). It is only possible with deep knowledge of user travel patterns.

The execution of a contruction work project is a very complex procedure involving many agents which include clients, contractors, suppliers, subcontractors… the necessary information for the execution of a project is vast, highly complex, contrasting, is registered in different ways, and on many ocassions is found fragmented. The lack of coordination, due to this information being unavailable or difficult to obtain means there are greater costs that the clients are not willing to assume and echo on the accepted budget, thus reducing the margins for engineering and construction firms.

In ACCIONA we are looking for solutions that facilitate the recollection of data in order to make just-in-time decisions, having in mind the execution process of a contruction work project. How can we get the project manager, the arquitect, and the owner the necessary information, in real-time, of the current state of the project? How can we manage the reception and dispatch of orders to external suppliers (i.e. suppliers of concrete) or adjust the reception of orders to the project’s situation? How can we predict and adapt accordingly to emerging issues without compromising efficiency and quality?  How can we control the work’s quality across all steps of the project’s lifecycle until its completion? How can we create a history of work performed by contractor/subcontractor/supplier/employee to support performance evaluation? How can we create traceable information?

Maintaining roads in good condition to ensure safety is one of ACCIONA’s lines of activity. The extreme conditions that occur in the cold winter months mean that special care is taken so that roads can be used under the best possible conditions.

 

The use of salt and brine to prevent the formation of ice is the most common treatment, although it is very harmful to the environment in the places where it is deposited, and it leads to later deterioration of the road surface.

 

In this respect, we sense a lack of awareness among both ordinary citizens and professionals about the indiscriminate use of salt to melt ice. We offer our services to find solutions that create awareness, optimise the distribution of salt, or replace it as the only way to deal with the hazardous road conditions in  winter.

Salt is the main element used to avoid ice and snow on roads. However, the conditions for spreading it are stipulated on the basis of ambient temperature, to avoid any risk to drivers. This means that it is essential to calculate the quantity of salt or brine applied, and where it is necessary, as well as calculating the amount that remains on the road surface after the last application to optimise its distribution and avoid unnecessary deposits.

 

Progress in sensors and portable meteorological stations leads us to apply improvements in the area of winter road maintenance, both in economic and environmental terms.

In ACCIONA we are open to suggestions, from the replacement of salt and brine to the detection of the presence of melting liquids on the roadway and the optimization of their distribution, with the aim of setting up a pilot project to co-create a product or service.

The construction sector absorbs 50% of resources extracted in the European Union and produces 35% of waste. This means that its impact in carbon footprint terms is very high, mainly in the production and extraction cycles of the life cycle of a product/activity.

 

In addition to ACCIONA’s commitment to sustainability and the creation of regenerative infrastructures with a positive impact, some of our clients demand carbon footprint values below certain thresholds and reward contractors that demonstrate improvements.

 

As a result, it is necessary to search for and incorporate new technologies that bring about a reduction in the carbon footprint of materials and processes in the construction sector. By doing this we set out to make a positive impact, either during the life cycle of products or through the creation of by-products that help us to achieve that impact.

The construction sector creates a great impact due to the extraction and consumption of resources, mainly in the early stages of a product’s life cycle. Considering the complete life cycle, improvements can be made if strategies that contribute to the creation of a positive impact are devised.

 

The possibility of implementing technologies that allow carbon sequestration improves interventions on the life cycle of material, construction or industrial processes, helping to create value and developing products with high added value. Furthermore, our clients increasingly ask us to reduce their carbon footprint over the entire working life of an infrastructure, so the adoption of strategies to improve in this area would lead to greater competitiveness for us.

We seek start-ups that can offer new solutions to carbon sequestration, both in construction and industrial materials and processes, to improve carbon footprints throughout life cycles and cause a positive impact on the working life of the infrastructure. In this way we contribute to creating improvement strategies for the Sustainable Development Goals, based on a circular economy approach and incorporating life cycle and eco-design elements into the solution.

ACCIONA is a benchmark company in the construction sector, a complex activity per se, due to the responsibility for, and management of, the different stakeholders involved. It is an area in which technology does not progress so quickly due to the nature of the sector, which makes human knowledge and input so valuable.

The legal documentation generated in this context is both extensive and complex. Freeing people from doing manual work would help them to focus on more specialised tasks. The contribution of technology to this field would mean savings in time, cost and risks, and would only need the supervision and approval of experts in the area.

ACCIONA seeks start-ups that can contribute their experience and know-how in the field of natural language processing, which can be applied to the specific characteristics of the legal documentation generated in the field of construction.

Energy communities allow the sharing of the operation of energy and thermal infrastructures on a specific site. The operation of plants within a residents’ community, a neighbourhood or industrial estate means a paradigm change in the energy sector, in terms of the combination of sustainable energy with the grid and a reduction in energy transmission.

 

This opens the door to self-sufficiency, which fosters more sustainable systems in economic and environmental terms and aims to activate citizens’ participation in the energy transition.

 

Bearing in mind that the trend is for cities to continue growing, with a higher population and a greater role in world GDP, it is important that the intensive use of resources and energy should be as efficient as possible.

ACCIONA is moving towards a sustainable future, with decarbonization playing a major role. The real estate unit of the company is working to incorporate it from a variety of perspectives. To comply with sustainable certification, we build smart housing units that include the control of consumption levels and temperature.

 

The problem to be solved is the lack of coordination and management of consumption, particularly in organised communities. Through this project, our aim is to contribute to less use of non-renewable primary energy, create smart housing and manage consumption in an efficient manner. We set out to promote a diversity of stakeholders and the existence of participate projects, both in green energy generation and in the energy system as a whole.

Is it possible to plan a community of buildings that can be energy self-sufficient and also store energy, thereby optimising its use?  Is it possible to make cost savings through the efficient use of energy?

 

ACCIONA needs to incorporate new tools for the management of costs and consumption in these communities. To do this, it puts its know-how and experience in the sector at your disposal to help bring about the transformation.

 

ACCIONA is a world reference in the construction of tunnels, with more than 825 kilometres constructed in Metro, road or railway tunnels, where it has acquired prestige in the construction of underground mega-infrastructures and tunnelling machinery.

 

The company’s know-how means that it is able to participate in the biggest projects worldwide, such as the tunnels along the Follo Line in Norway or the Quito Metro in Ecuador.

In the process of digging full tunnel sections with a tunnelling machine, the machine and knowledge of the soil are equally important, with the latter being the element that always provides the greatest uncertainty in a construction project, A geological study is essential when defining operating conditions. This leads to the optimisation of the digging performance of the tunnelling machine while ensuring conditions of safety and protection for the machine.

 

A real-time analysis of the data, the consistency of the data, and the experience of the team working on the project are a challenge and, therefore, an opportunity within this highly specialised area. We would highlight the singular nature of this project due to its technical complexity and the scale of the project.

ACCIONA seeks start-ups that can adapt their solution to improving the tunnelling machine’s performance, and only making use of the existing sources of data that such a machine generates. We are looking for a tool that will assist decision-making, optimising the digging process through the retro-analysis of geological parameters. We provide the historical data generated by a tunnelling machine for the development of such a tool, with the possibility of testing the tool in a real environment during the construction phase.

Mine and Construction sectors are constantly working towards the reduction of the accident rate. Besides, in Chile, with the new regulations, mining companies are also responsible for a potential accident caused by a worker’s health issue (i.e. a heart attack). Real-time monitoring solutions for the workers would enable an active management of their safety and health.

ACCIONA is looking for startups that help us improve the active management of the safety and health of mining workers. How could workers be monitored using devices they are already familiar with (i.e. a smartphone) How could the vital signs of workers be monitored to detect or prevent health risks? How could the workers receive alerts when they are at risk? How could workers in a mining site be monitored, considering the characteristics of the network service? How could the collected information be used to improve safety plans? How an efficient monitoring system could be developed for open pit and underground mines?

In copper mining, after the mineral extraction and processing through flotation, copper concentrates and tailings (mining waste) are produced. On one hand, tailings are thickened to recover a fraction of its water content and then carried to the storage site, a tailing dam, through a transportation system formed by pipes and/or channels. On the other hand, the copper concentrate is carried from the processing plants to the harbour through a piping system. These ducts are generally very long (over 30 km) and run mostly underground.

There have been occasional damages in this type of ducts, causing leakages with a high environmental impact. Knowing the condition of the ducts in real time would enable the anticipation of faults and the implementation of the necessary prevention actions to stop future damage.

ACCIONA is looking for startups that help us with the management and maintenance optimization of the piping system for both tailings and copper concentrates. How can both types of ducts be monitored in real time? How can incidents in the system be detected in real time to activate an action plan? How can the maintenance plans for the pipes be optimized? How could the monitoring solution be used to improve future piping systems?