Lighting up the Eiffel Tower with green hydrogen: we made it!
Our new interactive and immersive exhibition village was presented for the first time during "Le Paris de l'hydrogène" at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, from May 20 to 30. The highlight of the event? Lighting up the Eiffel Tower with green hydrogen.
Fortune follows the brave: if there is a quote to remember from our event, the “Paris de l’hydrogène", why not this one! While the Energy Observer crew was casting off in the San Francisco Bay to start the first transpacific journey in its history, the rest of the team was busy in Paris preparing a unique event in the heart of the French capital.
The first stop of our new exhibition village
Since 2017, we have made more than 15 stopovers with our exhibition village across Europe to raise awareness of the ecological and energy transition issues.
From May 20 to 30, 2021, Energy Observer presented for the first time its new interactive and immersive exhibition village in an international version, dedicated to the ecological transition, renewable energy and hydrogen.
Overview of our 210 m2 exhibition with Victorien Erussard, captain and founder.
The design of this new village has mobilized a large part of our team for many months; made from recycled containers of the CMA CGM group, this exhibition unveils, between two geodesic domes, a timeline designed with the support and expertise of Ademe, retracing the history of the energy transition, the ecological awareness and the Energy Observer laboratory.
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Immersive and didactic, the exhibition offers monumental projections and screens allowing to discover all the onboard technologies of our laboratory ship, their applications at sea and on land, but also the solutions of the pioneers met around the world through the prism of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of which Energy Observer is the first French ambassador.
Discover the backstage of the creation of this new exhibition village through a series of making-of videos :
Making-of 1 : introduction to the exhibition
Making-of 2 : Upcycling containers
Concrete examples of hydrogen mobility on land and at sea were also displayed around our exhibition to offer a concrete, optimistic and innovative perspective of tomorrow's cities: electro-hydrogen generator, propulsion and maritime energy system, bicycle, car, bus, forklift, semi-trailer, utility, train, plane, etc.
A promising future for EODev's GEH2®
This emission-free, noise-free generator is equipped with the same Toyota fuel cell system that is on board Energy Observer. This is the same generator that lit up the Eiffel Tower for the first time in its history with renewable hydrogen.
Hydrogen as an energy vector for a low-carbon society
More than 70 projectors were installed on the containers of our exhibition village, as well as a crane to be able to take pictures from a sufficient height, all in a heavy rain.
The illumination of the Eiffel Tower on the evening of May 25 is above all a symbol sent to the greatest number of people: that the hydrogen revolution is underway, and that the solutions to implement it exist.
“The economic recovery plan must be an opportunity for France to position itself at the forefront of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen production technologies. Like the illumination of the Eiffel Tower to accelerate the development of the sector in France and Europe, France is budgeting 7 billion euros by 2030, including 2 billion euros from 2021-2022 with France Relance.”
The sanitary conditions unfortunately prevented us from bringing as many people as possible to live this unique moment, but we hope that everyone will be able to appreciate it on video.
Last night, @EiffelTower was lit up with renewable hydrogen!
Paris is fully mobilized in the development of the hydrogen sector, in order to reduce the share of fossil fuels, to fight against air pollution and to protect our planet.
Mrs Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, honored us with her visit. Present at the inauguration of our vessel in 2017, she kindly answered to our questions on the challenges of the ecological transition and hydrogen, in our latest logbook!
An event of general interest with an educational scope
Learning, educating, raising awareness: this event is also the scene of meetings and educational events.
First of all, school visits with the announcement of the publication of our series of pedagogical materiel developed in collaboration with Universcience, and intended for teachers and their students to get to know more about the technologies that will make tomorrow's mobility and clean energy systems.
The onboard technologies of Energy Observer are explained through 6 themes and declined from elementary to 12th grade (in French only).
Another highlight was the organization of a ConfKids in partnership with One Ecole and Bayam around the theme "Connecting the world's energies". Laurène Blottière, Director of Communications, answered questions from Déborah Le Bloas to explore with the children all the human and technological dimensions of the extraordinary Energy Observer’s odyssey.
More than 1,500 students connected with their teachers in France and around the world!
Our exhibition village was only open to the general public during weekends and with a limited capacity, but finally, nearly 2,000 people came to discover it! A very promising first step for the continuation of our odyssey.