EDF launches 30 GW solar plan

CEO, Jean-Bernard Lévy said in a press release that the plan will be implemented between 2020 and 2035 by EDF’s renewable energy arm, EDF Energies Nouvelles. All of the plan’s announced new capacity will be deployed in France, the company said, and will add to projects currently under development in foreign markets.

Lévy stressed that 30 GW is four times more capacity than France’s current cumulative installed PV power, which currently totals around 7.7 GW.

The company said it will now mobilize all of its resources, to implement the plan; and that it will cooperate with local public authorities to identify the necessary locations for the development of its large-scale solar projects, which are expected to be positioned close to nuclear power plants, reconverted  industrial wastelands or dismantled sites. The plan also entails development of floating solar plants on hydroelectric sites.

“The Solar Power Plan is of an unparalleled scale and marks a real turning point in EDF’s development of solar power capacity,” Lévy stressed. “It is a concrete illustration of the goals outlined in the Group’s CAP 2030 strategy, which was initiated in 2015 and aim to double the Group’s installed renewable energy capacity by 2030. EDF now has a new roadmap in renewables for the next fifteen years,” the CEO added.

EDF is active in several PV markets outside France, including among others Brazil, Chile, Mexico, the United States, Canada, UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, where it submitted the world’s lowest bid to date for a large-scale solar project.

In June, the company announced the launch of a new solar PV self-consumption offering under the Mon Soleil and Moi banner, which will become EDF’s sole offering for residential customers in France.