Nouvelle-Aquitaine

BASE has developed Cogen'Air, the first Thermovoltaic solar panel, capable of producing electricity and heat simultaneously. While a conventional solar panel converts only about 15 to 20% of the solar energy received into electricity, Cogen'Air produces 10% more electricity and 3 times more heat, for a total efficiency of more than 60%. This Thermovoltaic panel is therefore 4 times more efficient than a conventional solar panel. BASE designs and markets heat and electricity production solutions for agricultural drying activities and biomass drying activities. It also markets solutions for the energy efficiency of buildings: heating support, electricity and domestic hot water production. The main objectives are: - Provide innovative and cost-effective solar solutions to contribute to a sustainable society. - Guarantee a drying quality superior to that of open-air drying and allow the production of a fuel with constant characteristics specific to the needs of boilers. - Improve the value of wood by preserving the resource in particular. - Reduce stocks and the mass to be transported. - Achieve a higher PCI, reduce wood consumption, increase boiler life - Generate income from photovoltaic production. The dryers designed with Cogen'Air Thermovoltaic technology ensure a homogeneous and fast drying of the wood energy. The control system allows the dryer to operate optimally, based on numerous temperature and humidity sensors. These dryers make it possible to recycle wood waste and give it a second life. One of the BASE dryers is intended, for example, for the recovery and drying of crushed strains, dry chips that will then be marketed in supermarkets as firelighters. This product from the Cogen'Air drying process has a high PCI and is ideal for boilers. The electricity is resold and provides additional income to the operator.

The objective of the OPTIM'indus action is to provide tailored support to develop the performance and competitiveness of companies by providing keys to meet the challenges facing the industry. It is financed by Europe, the Fund for Innovation in Industry, the New Aquitaine region and the OPCAIM (Joint Organisation for the Authorised Collection of Metallurgy Industries).
3 development axes are proposed to companies:
1) Project support
2) Skills development
3) Development of professional networks

The support of the company's projects is divided into several stages:
- expertise in skills and vocational training needs and an industrial diagnosis to define new technical orientations,
- assistance in improving processes, tools and product development, for example by carrying out a feasibility study or by putting partners, consultants or experts in contact with each other.
- proposal for financial assistance
OPTIM'indus offers Master Classes, training days or courses for executives, managers or technicians to develop skills.
It runs "Industry of the Future" clubs where companies meet and exchange ideas.

The project aims to use new technologies to make the wood sales system economical and dynamic, and to fluidize information to increase wood mobilization and get forest owners involved in management.
Two tools have been developed:
- a computerized wood auction sale system coupled with an online sales platform: SYLVATRADE system
- a digital GIS data sharing platform for optimized management accessible to all stakeholders (owners, managers, buyers) called NEOSYLVAQ.

In the long term, the expert firm Coudert wishes to organise wood sales exclusively online.

The computer sales tool (SYLVATRADE tool) is a platform created from a database to generate standardized batch records and edit contracts. It is associated with the NEOSYLVAQ cartographic platform to give the buyer an overview of the lots, the location and outline of each lot on cartography, access and itineraries and finally facilitates the organization of lot visits.  
At the time of the sale the buyer has several information on the lot on his digital tablet: geographical situation, cadastre, surface, species,... A quasi immediate computer processing makes it possible to display the best offer and its amount to the whole room. The computerized management makes it possible to treat approximately 90 000 m3 of wood in 2 hours. Sales balances can be carried out by computer and quickly by species, volume class, and geographical unit.  The group sales can be followed either remotely on the Internet, or in a room on digital tablets. The results of the offers appear in real time and the contractual documents are published during the sale and are signed electronically at the exit of sale.

FORETDATA is an operational collaborative platform for all stakeholders in the forest-wood-paper sector. It aims to improve knowledge of their activities by exchanging data. The platform makes it possible to obtain summaries at the level of the territory on the forest activity and to follow for each company their activities in relation to their data entry.
The mayors of municipalities can monitor the number of logging sites and their execution periods thanks to the platform.

The platform is developed only in New Aquitaine but it is possible to extend it to other regions. To function, it was necessary to establish a relationship of trust for rights management and application security.
The syntheses resulting from the platform are used as a means of communication with elected representatives in order to show the reality of forestry and to clarify the obstacles and their stakes.

Each forestry contractor fills in data related to the logging site (type of work, surface area, date of intervention, estimated volume, characteristics of the land) in order to fill out the online site opening declaration forms and safety data sheets. These are then sent directly to the services concerned (municipalities, DDT).
The sites are all mapped under GIS and the data referenced.
The users of the platform benefit:
- an online mapping tool that allows you to consult the cartographic bottoms and regulatory zoning
- of a drawing tool,
- of a shared directory,
- the production of standardised documents
- a platform for information exchange between companies.
In 2017, 182,000 ha were recorded on the platform, equivalent to 5,000 ha / month.
Currently, about twenty companies use the platform. The tool makes it possible to divide by 3 the time for a company to produce administrative documents.