Shifting focus: Owner of world's largest nuclear fleet looks to renewable energy
By William Pentland
EDF, the state-controlled electric utility company based in Paris, France, is pinning its hopes for growth on renewable energy investments, including investments in markets outside of Europe.
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EDF CEO Jean-Bernard Levy. |
"By 2030, we want to have a significant presence in three to five countries outside of Europe, notably in solar and wind," said Jean-Bernard Levy, chief executive officer of Electricite de France SA (EDF), in an interview with the French financial daily newspaper, Les Echos.
EDF owns and operates the world's largest fleet of nuclear reactors. Currently, 95 percent of the French utility's generating assets are located in either France, Britain or Italy. Levy said EDF would ramp up investments in renewable energy in these markets.
"Our objective is to double our European and French renewables fleet by 2030 from 28 to more than 50 gigawatts," Levy said.
This strategy departs markedly from the strategy articulated by Levy's predecessor, Henri Proglio.
While speaking at the Eurelectric conference in June 2014, Poglio said that the European Union needed to assert greater "control" over the pace of renewable energy growth.
"The more renewables you add in to the system, the more costs you add in subsidies or otherwise," said Poglio.
In 2014, EDF produced 82 percent of its power with nuclear, 8 percent with hydropower and 5.7 percent with other forms of renewable energy.
Levy said EDF would not scale back its investments in nuclear power to finance the utility's planned expansion in renewable energy. Instead, Levy said the investments would be supported by growing demand for electricity and potentially selling coal and gas-fired power plants.
In July, EDF began a "strategic review" of its fossil-fuel fired power generation assets and fossil fuel production outside of France.
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