EDF - Renewable energies

In its Energy and Climate Change Package, the European Union intends to increase the share of renewable energies (hydropower, solar, wind energy, biomass, and geothermal energy) in its energy mix to 20% by 2020.

Our group is contributing to this target and is making major investments, mainly in hydropower, wind, and solar energy, with the support of EDF Energies Nouvelles (EDF EN, 50% EDF) and its major European companies. At all levels, from the design to consideration of the impacts on the environment, we are calling on the expertise of our R&D and engineering teams. For example, at Soultz-sous-Forêts, we are contributing to a European R&D project on deep geothermal energy.

In France, we are bolstering our hydro assets thanks to the Gavet project (90 MW), which will replace six aging units with a complex at Romanche, and by modernizing the Rhineland stations of Kembs, Gambsheim and Iffezheim. We have also launched a tidal turbine experiment in real conditions, off the coast of Paimpol-Bréhat in Brittany , with the demonstration site connected to the grid and the objective of installing 4 to 10 tidal turbines as of 2011.

In Germany, EnBW is increasing its existing hydropower generation capacities by 68 MW and is building on offshore wind energy: following the acquisition of the development companies EOS and Offshore Ostsee Wind, four windfarms will be constructed in the North and Baltic sea, for an overall generation capacity of 1,200 MW.

In Italy, Edison is investing one billion euros in the development of hydroelectric, photovoltaic and wind energy power plants (industrial plan 2009-2014), to increase its electricity generation capacities using renewable sources to more than 2,700 MW, of which 800 MW will be from wind energy.

In the United Kingdom, EDF Energy, which already operates wind turbines in the North-East, has been authorised to construct a 90 MW offshore windfarm on Teesside, which will be brought on stream in 2010.

In Poland, our company EC Wybrzeze introduced two coal-biomass co-combustion facilities that are expected to reduce CO₂ emissions by 155,000 tonnes per year.

In Laos, we are the major shareholder (35%) in the Nam Theun 2 Power Company for the construction and operation of a dam, which was filled at the end of 2008, to be brought on stream for commercial operations in early 2010.

Renewable energies also have impacts on the environment. We are developing all of our projects to include sustainable development from the start: choice of sites, site covering, audible and visual impact studies and consultation with populations and their elected representatives. Our windfarms, for example, are placed outside the migratory corridors of birds. We sometimes change our initial choice of site to protect a natural area of ecological interest. During the construction works, organized outside the nesting periods of certain birds, protection and barriers are installed if impact studies have highlighted the presence of vulnerable species. In the operational phase, ornithological and botanic monitoring verifies the absence of any major impact on ecosystems. Furthermore, our R&D has developed software tools to predict interference caused by windfarms to electromagnetic waves, enabling us to implement corrective measures to avoid disruption to TV reception for the local populations.

With the Nam Theun dam construction project in Laos, we carried out a wide study of the impacts of a hydropower construction site on the surrounding environment and the populations leaving nearby. To find out more about the social and environmental programs put into place, visit our interactive guide to the Nam Theun 2 site.

• Find out about Nam Theun 2