Q&A #1 with Team for the Planet

Question, 2026-08-01

Hello,

Thank you for submitting your innovation to the TFTP assessment process.

I have several questions:

• do you have a quantified estimate of the environmental impact of diesel generators at the scale of France or the world?
• have you estimated the tCO2eq avoided by your solution compared to diesel and petrol generators?
• you present your solution as economically viable compared to a diesel generator. Could you detail that aspect (including manufacturing, operation and maintenance, end-of-life management)?
• are there uses where your solution cannot replace a diesel generator? How do you address electricity generation at night?
• regarding deployment, is a technician required to optimise the positioning of the solution and its connection?

All the best,

Jean-Baptiste

Answer

Hello Jean-Baptiste,

Thank you for these questions — each of them would deserve an article of its own!

Here are a few quick and precise elements.

• do you have a quantified estimate of the environmental impact of diesel generators at the scale of France or the world?

France: roughly 10 MtCO2e/year (range 8–12 Mt), i.e. ~70% of French off-road diesel (GNR) consumption (5.5 Mt/year) — consistent with ADEME/Citepa data.

World: ~760 MtCO2e/year for electricity generators alone (excluding stationary industrial and backup engines). Including all uses, 1,000–1,500 MtCO2e/year is more realistic (IPCC/IEA).

These figures do not include fine particulates, which are largely underestimated because generators are often run outside nominal conditions (poor fuel quality, low load, insufficient maintenance).

Small generator categories are lightly regulated, so the figures below mostly cover the larger, better-documented installations.

• have you estimated the tCO2eq avoided by your solution compared to diesel and petrol generators?

For a HelioSail 30kW+20kWh system replacing a 10kW diesel running 10h a day: Europe: ~9 tCO2eq avoided/year (90 t over 10 years) Africa: ~13.9 tCO2eq avoided/year (139 t over 10 years, thanks to higher solar output)

• you present your solution as economically viable compared to a diesel generator. Could you detail that aspect (including manufacturing, operation and maintenance, end-of-life management)?

In France / Belgium:

Diesel (10 kW, 10h/day) — HelioSail (30 kW + 20 kWh)

Total cost over 10 years: €280,585 → €70,700 (75% cheaper) LCOE: €0.769/kWh → €0.214/kWh (72% cheaper) Cost per day: €69.75 → €19.37 (72% cheaper) Energy: 100 kWh → 110.4 kWh (10% more) ROI: – → 2.91 years (< 3 years) CO₂ avoided: – → ~90,000 kg (90 tonnes avoided over 10 years) Noise level: 70–90 dB → < 20 dB (silent) Maintenance (10 years): €25,000 → €8,750 (65% cheaper)

In Africa:

Diesel (10 kW, 10h/day) — HelioSail (30 kW + 20 kWh)

Total cost over 10 years: €321,100 → €70,700 (78% cheaper) LCOE: €0.880/kWh → €0.131/kWh (85% cheaper) Cost per day: €80.80 → €19.37 (76% cheaper) Energy: 100 kWh → 167.95 kWh (68% more) ROI: – → 2.44 years (< 2.5 years) CO₂ avoided: – → ~139,000 kg (139 tonnes avoided over 10 years) Noise level: 70–90 dB → < 20 dB (silent) Maintenance (10 years): €25,000 → €8,750 (65% cheaper)

A diesel generator is never profitable, HelioSail always is — especially in Africa, in under 5 years even in "fixed" use like a conventional solar plant.

As for end of life, it is included in the 10-year total cost:

Diesel: €1,000 (removal, frame/engine recycling, waste oil management — a regulated and costly channel) HelioSail: €950 (€750 panel recycling via the PV Cycle channel + €200 Li-ion battery recycling), accounting for the residual value of recovered materials (aluminium, copper, silicon, cobalt/lithium)

Because the system is modular, replacing a panel or a battery at end of life does not require removing the whole installation — only the item concerned is dismantled, which limits the marginal end-of-life cost compared with a single-block system.

Also worth noting: the panels used by HelioSail can come from refurbishment/recycling channels, which remains relevant even in Africa where access to cheap new panels is sometimes limited — degraded panels (still at 70-80% capacity) remain economically viable for this kind of mobile/intermittent use, unlike a fixed plant aiming for maximum yield over 25 years.

Furthermore, HelioSail's modular design allows fast dismantling at the factory: the system can be disassembled and its components (panels, batteries, structure, connectors) sorted and fed back into their respective recycling channels within a few hours, with no cutting or complex separation operation — unlike a diesel genset, where the engine, the fluids and the frame require distinct and often subcontracted treatments.

• are there uses where your solution cannot replace a diesel generator? How do you address electricity generation at night?

The main constraint is space: in a city, for instance, it can be difficult. Why are diesels still used in cities in 2026? I don't have the answer to that one; quite a few battery-based or grid-connection solutions exist for those cases.

At large events, where 1 MW generators are used, the equivalent solar footprint required is prohibitive. At those events, that type of generator is heavily regulated and well maintained, and the main CO2 impact comes in any case from attendee travel (>80% of the CO2 impact), so it is not a great fit for HelioSail — except perhaps in the form of a voluntary CO2 offset fund proposed to attendees.

The solution for night-time generation is: batteries or hydrogen. With HelioSail, you can deploy solar overcapacity, and therefore consume and recharge batteries during the day. That keeps a decarbonised supply running over several days, which pure-battery solutions cannot do (they require a shuttle system to keep bringing batteries in).

Until battery prices fall further and/or hydrogen becomes more accessible, combining with a diesel generator is the fastest and most affordable path to decarbonise as much as possible: solar + battery covers most daytime needs, and the generator supplies the night through occasional battery recharging. The diesel is only used intermittently, at its maximum efficiency point. A company called VoltaEnergie offers exactly this solution, in a pre-packaged, non-modular and fairly expensive format, but they explain all the advantages well: https://volta-energy.com/fr/comment-ca-marche/

• regarding deployment, is a technician required to optimise the positioning of the solution and its connection?

No — the system was designed precisely for difficult environments: each solar module is independent, and the dual orientation favours continuous electricity generation rather than a midday peak. The connectors are keyed and secured. The system is installed with the panels closed, so with no high currents.

Schematically, the truck driver making the delivery installs the unit himself in 30 minutes.

• Notes on the calculation assumptions:

The assumptions used are deliberately conservative, against HelioSail.

The diesel price is held flat over 10 years (€1.70/L Europe, €2.00/L Africa), whereas it is structurally more exposed to volatility and to increases (carbon taxes, logistics costs) than solar. HelioSail's cost is set at €1,500/kW; a real cost below €1,000/kW at production scale is likely by the time it reaches the market, which would improve HelioSail's LCOE and ROI considerably further.

The performance gaps presented here are therefore a lower bound rather than an optimistic estimate.

Thank you for your questions — they show me I was right to apply to this platform, and they help me bring out the strengths of my project.

If a direct investment isn't possible, I would in any case be delighted to supply electricity to the companies you support!

Best regards,

Alain Sanguinetti