Philipp has big plans for his adoptive home of Chile. From his office in the capital city of Santiago, he’s been busy coming up with a business plan that could put the South American country well and truly on the sustainability map. “I want to take renewable energies from Chile to decarbonize the world,” he says.
Working in energy management for one of the world’s biggest companies, Philipp doesn’t underestimate the complexity of solving a problem like global warming. “Without some major disruptive technical changes, many countries will not be able to meet their CO₂ targets for 2030,” he says.
So far, the best solution we’ve come up with is to swap our dependence on fossil fuels for renewable energy, but that comes with its own set of problems. “To change the type of energy we use, we need new infrastructure,” Philipp explains. Just look at electric cars. Of course, they represent an essential step on the road to reducing environmentally harmful emissions, but we need to ensure there are enough charging points to go around. And we haven’t even started on electric planes and cargo ships.
Philipp may well have an alternative solution. He and his team have been busy developing a new e-fuel. Using electrical energy to make hydrogen, they have figured out a way to produce a synthetic fossil fuel from sustainable sources. “We can make all kinds of oil derivatives, like diesel or kerosene but with a neutral CO₂ balance.” With e-fuel, there would be no need to change all our existing infrastructure. Just fill up the tank and go.
Once in production, e-fuel will need a reliable supply of electrical energy to keep up with demand. And that’s where Chile comes in.
A geographic wonder, the pencil-thin country is wedged between 6,000km of Pacific Ocean coastline and the rugged Andes. For the past century its biggest resource has been its mining industry, but now its diverse geographical terrain could potentially hold the answer to global warming. “There’s no better place in the world to produce renewable energies at a very competitive cost,” Philipp goes on to explain. “To the north you have the Atacama Desert, which produces the best solar radiation in the world, and in the Patagonian region in the south you have the steadiest and strongest winds in the world.”
All this means Chile is a natural starting point when it comes to bringing e-fuel to the world. “Even if another country has access to the same technology,” Philipp clarifies, “it all comes down to geographical conditions.”
Making substantiality good for business
“There’s a key concept at Siemens called business to society,” says Philipp. “Of course, we want to do business but it has to have a positive impact on society.”
Philipp doesn’t come from a technical background – he studied business administration — but, while living in Colombia, he took an internship in Siemens’ energy strategy department. “During that time, I was very close to my final thesis, I began asking around saying ‘I wanna write about two things: renewable energies and South America.’”
This led the head of strategy to ask Philipp if he wanted to work with him in renewables in Chile. “We just kept developing ideas around all the renewable energies here,” he says. “Now I work on several projects — not just the e-fuel one.”
Philipp Bezler was born in Germany. After living in Mexico, Canada, and Colombia he now calls Santiago in Chile home. Find out more about working at Siemens.
Philipp is one of the many talented people working with us to make real what matters.
Photography: Franz Grünewald
Video: Mattias Matoq
