Deja Tu Huella, sustainable mobility is making headway

This project seeks to reduce the CO2 associated with citizens' trips in the city of Madrid.

'Deja tu huella' is an innovative online platform that encourages, in a personalized way, users to travel kilometers by sustainable transportation through a program of challenges and rewards. Users earn points for each kilometer traveled by registering their trips on the platform. Then they can redeem these points for rewards and be eligible to win prizes.

Reducing CO2 emissions

The system uses advanced data analytics to identify the transport hub user’s tastes and preferences to cater to their needs based on different parameters (age, gender, likings, etc.). Similarly, the app gathers information about end-to-end routes in the city to identify and suggest new uncovered routes to the ‘Consorcio Regional de Transportes de Madrid’.

At the height of the climate crisis, projects such as ‘Deja tu huella’ act as tools for education and awareness-raising for citizens about the importance of environmental protection and promoting sustainable mobility in the city.

  • Challenges
  • CO2
  • Madrid
  • Spain

Digital twins, the virtual water revolution

We are developing digital twins to improve the management of our industrial plants and optimize water treatment.

Gemelo Digital

From Sacyr, in collaboration with the startup Talent Swarm, we are creating digital twins to improve the management of our water plants. It is an exact digital copy of the real installation that targets the remote management of the plant. These digital twins represent the integration and convergence of multiple digital technologies, such as virtual reality, augmented reality, Internet of Things, advanced analytics or Machine Learning.
Digital twins make it possible to optimize the remote management of industrial plants. The implementation of these solutions maximizes eficiency, optimizes performance, and improves safety. They also make it possible to reduce maintenance and operating costs, predict breakdowns, and minimize costs associated with the travel of expert personnel.

  • Water
  • Plants
  • Industrials

Our innovation ecosystem

We promote and bring innovation to all areas and markets where we operate, collaborating and exchanging synergies with the innovation community.
Proyecto de las setas en sevilla Proyecto de las setas en sevilla

Innovation does not understand physical barriers or sectors of activity. Therefore, we are strongly committed to promote and bring innovation to all areas and markets where we are present, collaborating and exchanging synergies with the innovative community.

We are members of benchmark organizations in the field of innovation, we actively participate in dialogue forums dedicated to fostering the development of innovation and we promote major projects with different innovative agents.

 

  • Spain

Technology Forecasting and Scouting

We continuously analyze the ecosystem to detect needs and notice new opportunities that may help us transform the world.

The ultimate goal of our technology surveillance activity is the early identification of scientific and technological innovations that could create opportunities or threats in our field of action.

At Sacyr, we explore new paths and study our environment with the aim of learning about new opportunities or needs that may affect the sustainable performance of our company.

We believe in observation, curiosity, and analysis as valuable tools to anticipate potential changes that may occur in the markets in which we operate, as well as to reduce risk in decision-making and anticipate any changes. All of this connected to the same objective: to continue to be a benchmark in the sector.”

  • Spain

Sacyr Ingenium

Sacyr Ingenium is our collaborative intelligence platform, a tool that seeks to share ideas and bring together innovative proposals to improve our activities.

We empower creativity and give credit to all those who dare to think differently. Therefore, we promote the talent and innovative spirit of our employees through collective intelligence campaigns aimed at generating new ideas that respond to our challenges.

Ingenium is our collective intelligence platform. This tool seeks new ideas on how to achieve, within the company, more profitable and sustainable businesses using new technologies and, in this way, improving the quality of life of citizens.

  • Spain

Deseacrop: Desalination of seawater for agriculture

This project aims to demonstrate the feasibility of sustainable management of desalinated seawater for crop production in closed soilless systems.

Deseacrop: Desalination of seawater for agriculture

Wastewater from agricultural irrigation has a high nutrient content that seeps into aquifers and can cause problems of contamination of water bodies.
At Sacyr, we have launched a project for the reuse of agricultural drainage water, the Deseacrop project (Desalinated seawater for alternative and sustainable soilless crop production). 

Thanks to the development of this European Life project, we have demonstrated that desalinated water is not only be better when mixed with groundwater, but also increases crop yields and crop quality. In addition, as a novelty, we have treated the irrigation drainage water (approximately 30% of the initial irrigation) by reverse osmosis desalination so that it can be reused for irrigation. In addition, drainage treatment at the desalination plant is carried out 100% with photovoltaic solar energy.

 

 

  • Water
  • Crops
  • Sea rise
  • Farming

Anticipation of the geotechnical behaviour of the ground

This initiative aims to respond to the challenge launched in Sacyr iChallenges 2020 to find solutions to anticipate the behavior of the terrain in our infrastructure projects.

The analysis of the materials and parameters that affect the behavior of the ground is a complex task; the difficult access to the areas of interest or the large extension of these areas makes it even more complicated to obtain quality information that allows us to anticipate geotechnical behavior.

The project seeks to understand which variables are key to ground movement, how millimetric changes can be detected using satellite technology, and combine both learnings into a set of maps and predictive models of the infrastructure area that allow us to anticipate and set up warnings. Early detection of a potential problem can allow us to make a better decision and anticipate the necessary actions or resources.

This project, which puts AI at the service of infrastructure control, offers advantages such as:

  • Greater security and reduction of incidents through the improvement of early warning systems.
  • Efficiency in operation and preventive maintenance
  • Increased cost-effectiveness due to reduced on-site control instrumentation costs
  • Improved information available on ground behavior in the design and construction stages.
  • Geothermal
  • Engineering

Carbon Tracker: measuring and reporting carbon footprints

The Carbon Tracker project uses the technology provided by Emitwise (Big Data, Machine Learning, AI) to monitor and manage Scope 3 carbon emissions in real time through its cloud platform. Scope 3 includes all indirect emissions that occur in Sacyr's value chain.

London-based startup Emitwise aims to accelerate the rapid decarbonization of the economy and become the standard for carbon emissions management processes.

In the context of growing awareness of the importance of reducing carbon emissions and incorporating greener, more sustainable practices into business approaches, Emitwise, launched in 2019, provides an AI-powered digital carbon management platform that enables businesses to automatically measure, report and reduce their carbon footprint across their operations and supply chain in a fast and visual way.

The main objectives of Emitwise are:

  • Measure and report the carbon footprint associated with Sacyr's main activities.
  • Analyze the data transmitted by suppliers to validate the source, reliability and consistency of the data.
  • Manage the data in a secure and standardized way in order to present evidence to/at each audit.
  • Present results visually through interactive dashboards.
  • Detect the activities with the greatest environmental impact.
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Carbon footprint

Sacyr Inroad: Big Data for predictive road maintenance

Sacyr Inroad is an artificial vision system for vehicles capable of analyzing road conditions in real time.

Sacyr Inroad

This initiative consists of the deployment of different sensors in a maintenance vehicle that allow the system to capture information from the environment and create models that predict the deviation of infrastructure condition indicators. The implementation of this system allows us to improve service quality, increase revenue and reduce costs.
Sacyr Inroad is an exclusive project in the market that represents our commitment to innovation and a different way of doing things. It is an initiative of which we are very proud, as it arises from collaboration with the innovative ecosystem, a fundamental value in the new digital era.

  • Big data

Sacyr Prediction Tool: artificial intelligence for safer roads

We created a predictive asphalt maintenance system powered by the latest technologies

This innovative tool uses machine learning and big data to predict with high accuracy the long-term deterioration of road pavement. We developed this project in collaboration with Tyris AI, the winning startup of the 2018 Sacyr Innovation Awards. The system is based on a machine learning module. Through a massive intake of data and sources on asphalt imperfections, this module modifies equations and calculations of pavement deterioration on roads.

Sacyr Prediction Tool

Has the capacity to run dozens of calculations simultaneously, issuing very accurate predictions of the long-term behavior of pavements and their possible deterioration, based on data on the use of the road itself, its construction, and environmental conditions such as weather. 

This project aims to provide greater safety throughout the life cycle of the road. Similarly, the tool aims to ensure that the operations and maintenance developed and applied are much more limited and have a high level of detail and effectiveness to correct each of the deteriorations.

All this translates into more efficient, more sustainable, and of course, safer roads; generating value for customers and users in the short and long term.
 

  • Big data
  • Machine learning
  • Roads

Aurora, smart lighting for a unique experience

Aurora is a cultural and technological multisensory experience on the emblematic building of Las Setas de Sevilla

Aurora is an immersive light and sound experience based on an intelligent system of sensors, cameras, and external variables processed in real-time on Las Setas de Sevilla, the largest wooden structure in the world.

This project, jointly developed by Sacyr and startup Skandal Technologies, uses the most innovative technologies, like IoT, advanced LED design, or image recognition software to create a new immersive lighting concept that makes a unique place out of this space. Aurora is managed through software that allows to remotely generate real-time configurations that combine design, data, lighting, sound, and the information captured by the sensors. 

We have created one of the greatest immersive shows in the world with this project. With Aurora, visitors can submerge in an everchanging landscape of light and sound that reinterprets contextual triggers and the parametric geometry of this striking building. All of it right at this site framed by the historical landscape of the center of Sevilla. 

Aurora is a living experience that stands out for its sustainability, and the fact that it changes with temperature, wind, by displaying natural patterns, as it interacts with the visitors in real-time, creating a unique experience.

 

  • Sustainability
  • Solar Energy
  • Renewable energy

Sacyr Explorer: machine learning for new business opportunities

This tool can pick up on budding trends about prospective tenders.

Artabro Tech, the winning startup of the 9th edition of the Sacyr Innovation Awards

At Sacyr, we believe that teamwork is one of the keys to the success of any company. The Sacyr Explorer project represents this essential collective effort to carry out innovative projects that contribute to the improvement of our activities.

Sacyr Explorer arises from one of the challenges launched to the innovative ecosystem through our open innovation program, Sacyr iChallenges 2019. The challenge focused on the search for technological solutions based on machine learning and artificial intelligence that helps to identify new business opportunities early on.
 

Sacyr Explorer

From Sacyr, in collaboration with Artabro Tech, the winning startup of the 9th edition of the Sacyr Innovation Awards, we are developing this tool for early detection of business opportunities through machine learning.

With the implementation of this solution, we want to maximize the identification and access to business opportunities for the development of large projects. Information on future tenders is not always easy to access, and has multiple origins, which make it dificult for early detection. In addition, the geographic dispersion of the markets in which we operate makes this work even more complex.
Sacyr Explorer is a tool with a high degree of internationalization that allows us to identify new opportunities in multiple markets.

  • IA
  • Machine learning

Battery-Less Sensor: a sustainable approach to the Internet of Things

We live in a world that ever changes at vertiginous speed in which more and more objects are connected to the Internet and interact with each other without human intervention.
Proyecto Battery-Less Sensor

The Internet of Things (IoT) is revolutionizing how companies in every sector operate, manage and produce. We advance towards a more intelligent industry where all machinery is connected, and organizations can detect possible irregularities in real-time while measuring process performance. 

Battery-Less Sensor is funded by the Ministry for Industry, Commerce, and Tourism’s line of Innovative Business Groups. Projects like this focus on making progress towards the so-called connected industry. Battery-Less sensor is an IoT initiative developed by Valoriza Medioambiente, a Sacyr company, in collaboration with startup Alternative Energy Innovations (AEInnova) and coordinated by the Cluster de l’Energia Eficient de Catalunya (CEEC).

Battery-Less Sensor is a project that consists of using residual heat present in processes as a power source for new-generation wireless sensors with no need for batteries. This way, these devices measure temperature and vibration levels in industrial processes or monitor rotative machines to facilitate predictive maintenance, avoiding stopping production and creating early alerts of potential machine failures in industrial processes. The project encompasses power generation, obtaining, analyzing, and visualizing data: creating alarms to help prevent unforeseen events that might lead to an unexpected stoppage.

Currently, we monitor machines through solutions that work by wired sensors or require batteries. These methods demand a serious investment. Besides the economic cost, batteries present a massive environmental issue, as they are mostly produced with cobalt and lithium, which are scarce materials. Batteries also contain environmentally harmful heavy metals like mercury, lead, and cadmium. By the end of their life cycle, batteries are hazardous waste due to their high toxicity, inflammability, and reactivity levels. 

Solutions like “Battery-Less Sensor” are the alternative; devices powered by energy harvesting from industrial residual heat. Around 21% of residual heat power is wasted every year in the European industry. Likewise, research shows that we could retrieve around 336.9TWh of energy.

Battery-Less Sensor is in total alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and it contributes to improving the sector, sustainability, economy, and society in general. 
 
As of today, we have carried out pilot projects based on this solution to demonstrate the devices functioning in low-temperature conditions and isolated machines. However, these pilots face some technical challenges.

 

Battery-Less Sensor pilots

We executed these pilots in a few of our industrial plants: 
 
- Chiloeches out-of-use tires plant: installation of vibration and temperature monitoring system powered by thermal energy in a rasper grinder, which is vital for the functioning of the Chiloeches (Guadalajara) plant, as an unprogrammed stoppage would put production on hold. Monitoring is the outset of a predictive maintenance protocol. This case poses a significant challenge due to the temperature of the machinery (50 ºC or 122 ºF).
 
- Cirtec’s additive plant for asphalt mixtures: installation of vibration and temperature monitoring system in two reactors of the Cirtec plant. Temperatures in this plant are so high that go higher than 150 ºC (302 ºF), which requires the thermoelectric generator to adapt to highly variable temperature ranges. 

These pilots determine the system’s viability in other sector companies, proving that performance is enough to fulfill the machine’s requirements and develop a predictive maintenance plan. The following steps should integrate the data and alarm system into the current plant system to facilitate data analysis, making it more useful and making a system deployment to digitalize machines that we currently cannot monitor.  

Battery-Less Sensor aims to become a role model in the 4.0 industry as an alternative to current solutions (wired or battery powered), minimizing economic costs and eliminating environmental impact, in line with our commitment to the environment. 

Additionally, setting this project in motion reinforces our bet on promoting and backing collaboration with the innovation community to identify and boost new ideas that contribute to making a better, more sustainable world.

  • Energy
  • Sustainability
  • IOT

Aurora, energy to infinity and beyond

Aurora is a real mobile and autonomous electric power generation unit, based on the hybridization of renewable energy sources

In the 21st century, there are still corners of the world that have neither running water nor electricity. At Sacyr, we work to bring these basic services to places that are difficult to access.
The Aurora project, developed by Sacyr in collaboration with Kemtecnia and Ariema, is capable of bringing electricity supply to almost any place. In this way, we take advantage of resources provided by nature, such as the sun and the wind, to generate sustainable and personalized electricity.
The system initially has an installed power of 30 kilowatts peak (kWp), although it can reach 100 kWp. To produce energy, Aurora has a wind turbine and photovoltaic solar panels. In addition, it is equipped with a battery system to store energy that is not consumed and that provides extra electricity when wind and photovoltaic are not able to cover all needs.

 

 

  • Sustainability
  • Solar Energy
  • Renewable energy

Sacyr IOHNIC, the tunnel lighting system of the future

Sacyr IOHNIC is a linear tunnel lighting system, mostly bilateral, which allows maximum savings in electricity consumption and 100% uniformity of light.

SACYR IOHNIC

At Sacyr, through our subsidiary Sacyr Concesiones, we have developed a patent for tunnel lighting using continuous LED strips to improve lighting in road tunnels and ensure the safety and comfort of road users. Thanks to the implementation of this technology, we can reduce electricity consumption by 66%, which means a reduction of 153 tons of CO2 per year, obtain 100% lighting homogeneity and regulate the equipment freely. 


This project presents an innovative tunnel lighting system based on LED technologies that has its field of application on the user and tends to respond not only to environmental issues, but also has a positive effect on citizens, ensuring their safety and improving their quality of life. 
The implementation of this pioneering solution has great advantages for the user in terms of safety and comfort. Thus, the system facilitates the adaptation to the pupil dilation rhythm, eliminates the flickering effect inside and allows to increase the light intensity.

  • Innovation
  • Tunnels
  • Security
  • illumination
  • Environment
  • Hydraulic infrastructures

Expansion works of the Panama Canal: the largest engineering piece of work in the 21st century

The third set of locks has opened a new interoceanic transit route, doubles current ship traffic, and complies with rigorous environmental standards

The expansion works on the Panama Canal have posed an engineering challenge for a long time. At Sacyr, we are passionate about challenges, and in 2016 we successfully finished building the third set of locks, a new maritime transit route that runs parallel to the pre-existing locks.

 

Watch all our videos on the Stories of the Canal and the Panama Canal

4

KILOMETERS

Two two-kilometer platforms on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts 

3,380

MILLION EUROS

Of total investment

10,000

PEOPLE

Involved in the project

Construction for the future

The expansion of the Panama Canal is a colossal work from an economic standpoint as well. The Canal is a strategic route for international trade and at 6% of Panama’s GDP, is the country’s principal economic activity. With a total investment of almost 4,000 million euros, this project has yielded Panama up to 2,500 million euros per year and has generated 180 direct employment positions. 

Innovation at the service of engineering

We designed a unique kind of concrete in order to overcome the challenges that the area posed from the technical, orographic, geological, and climatic standpoints. We improved the formula to guarantee a lifecycle of at least 100 years. Chemical proof, this concrete can stand inner temperatures of up to 70ºC. We also worked on a pioneer earthquake protocol response model, designing a structure ready to respond to two kinds of seismic levels. 

An efficient and sustainable project

Right from the start, the expansion of the Canal has taken the environmental aspects into account. As the new set of locks is quicker to fill and empty, they consume 7% less water. The sluicegates have nine deposits that allow reusing water and save up to 60% of this precious resource. 

As for its atmospheric impact, we estimate that the third set of locks will help reduce more than 160 million tons of CO2 from the shipping sector in the next ten years. 

We also care about preserving the biodiversity of Gatun Lake, which the Canal traverses. Before beginning construction works, environmental specialists rescued and relocated all local fauna (such as turtles, caimans, sloths, and boa constrictors) to the adjacent San Lorenzo park. Furthermore, we reforested a surface area of 2,800 ha, planted close to 6 million trees, and carried out training, informative, and follow-up programs about the project with the local communities.

Rescue and relocation of local flora and fauna species

Right from the first clearing and dredging jobs, we established strict protocols to care for wild flora and fauna:
  • 4,500 rescued and relocated specimens 
  • 200 protected species 
  • 2800 ha of reforested surface
  • 5,8 million trees planted

Brief history of the Panama Canal

The Spanish were the first to promote the creation of a maritime route in Panama. In the 15th century, they opened the Camino de Cruces, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific coasts for the first time. In the 19th century, several expeditions took place in the isthmus, and the transoceanic railway was inaugurated, which was pivotal to the later construction of the Canal. In the early 20th century, the United States started looking into the Panama transoceanic route with a keen eye. A few days after the country obtained its independence, they won the concession for constructing the Canal from the French company Compagnie Universelle du Canal interocéanique de Panama. Construction works started in 1904 and ended in August 1914, going down in the history of engineering. 

  • Canal de Panamá
  • Sacyr Infrastructures
  • Tercer Juego de Esclusas
  • Panamá

Desaldron, the latest underwater explorer

This sophisticated drone helps us improve efficiency at desalination and water treatment plants

Desaldron

This underwater drone is intended for research, environmental impact studies, inspection, and maintenance in aquatic areas. The desaldron is equipped with a 1080p camera optimized for the underwater environment, side scan sonar, multiparameter probe, sampler, and GPS positioner.

The main advantages of this drone are speed, efficiency, and safety. The desaldron can perform inspection and surveillance tasks, sampling, water parameter mapping, environmental studies, bathymetry, and other marine surveys. In addition, it can perform underwater work, preventing people (divers) from descending manually to outfalls, immisaries, or the seabed.
 

  • Drones
  • Sea rise
  • Security
  • Environment
  • Energy efficiency
  • Spain

Lifesure, sustainable urban roads

We developed the technology to manufacture recycled bituminous mixtures for use on urban road surfaces

 Lifesure project

The production of hot mix asphalt (HMC) requires significant energy consumption and generates a large volume of greenhouse gases. Similarly, the maintenance and rehabilitation of road pavements and other roads produces an enormous amount of waste from the milling of bituminous mix layers.

LIFESURE provides an answer to all these problems. This project uses new technologies to efficiently manufacture 100% recycled mixes at low temperature so that they can be reused on urban roads.


 

LIFESURE

This project represents the teamwork and successful collaboration of several areas of the Group (Machinery, Engineering and Innovation). It is led by Sacyr Engineering and Infrastructures and involves strategic partners such as the Madrid City Council and CEDEX. In addition, LIFESURE is an initiative aligned with our strategy to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With it, we want to contribute to the improvement of the sector, sustainability, the economy and society in general.

  • New technologies
  • Environment
  • Energy saving
  • Spain

BOCALT, heat for a more sustainable energy

We design and develop a novel heat pump for applications with high temperature heat sources

One of the lines of action for reducing CO2 emissions is the decrease in the consumption of fossil fuels and the increase in the production of energy from renewable sources.
In this context, the recovery of residual heats, which are currently not being used, and the use of various types of renewable energies, which can be captured at medium temperature, such as solar thermal energy or medium enthalpy geothermal energy, would be important advantages both environmental and energy consumption reductions. In the same way, it would allow the increase of the use of renewable energies.

 

 

BOCALT

Is an R&D project that consists of the design and development of a new heat pump capable of using heat from sources at high temperatures (between 30ºC and 60ºC). This solution allows us to recover waste heat from industrial processes or renewable energy sources, capable of heating fluids to temperatures close to 80 ºC with high efficiency, incorporating a natural refrigerant that not only meets the requirements of the new F-Gas regulation for this type of equipment but scores highest on global atmospheric warming potential indices. All this, without damaging the ozone layer, and also using the latest generation inverter (modulating) compressors.
The potential for using this technology is enormous since it can be implemented in energy rehabilitation projects to replace boilers while maintaining radiators, in centralized sanitary hot water heating facilities without the need for a sanitization system, for heating process or industrial fluids. , to take advantage of the heat recovered from fluids or residual effluents, or to use springs or geothermal wells with low enthalpy (30 to 60 ºC), etc.

  • Energy
  • CO2
  • Environment

Repair 2.0, sustainable technology for road rehabilitation

We are developing new techniques and information systems for the sustainable rehabilitation of road pavements

The Repair 2.0 project aims to develop new technologies and methodologies that support infrastructure management and allow the rehabilitation and conservation of any type of road at a lower economic and environmental cost, improving their adaptation to climate change.
The implementation of this project has allowed us to develop new recycled asphalt mixtures at rates of up to 100%, which are more sustainable and resilient, mechanical performance similar to hot mixes, suitable for high capacity roads, obtained with low energy consumption and low emissions and manufactured at room temperature, (cold technologies), which is a world first.

 

 

  • Big data
  • Sustainable
  • New technologies
  • Climate change
  • Transport infrastructure

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