French utility Electricite De France (EDF) has decided to further its lower carbon energy initiatives in China, expanding its cooperation with Chinese partner China Energy Investment (CEI) to cover to an offshore wind, solar power, hydrogen and energy storage pilot project in eastern China’s Jiangsu province.
Witnessed by visiting French President Emmanuel Macron and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, the two companies late last week signed an agreement to expand their cooperation.
Based on the agreement, the two companies will build “an offshore comprehensive smart energy island pilot project” that will integrate wind, solar, hydrogen and energy storage facilities offshore Dongtai city in the northern part of Jiangsu.
The project will involve building offshore wind and solar facilities with total capacity of 15 gigawatts.
Meanwhile, the two companies will pursue further investment opportunities for renewable energy projects in third party markets.
The new initiative is built on an earlier array of green power projects the two companies have completed in Dongtai.
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The two companies currently operate a 500-MW offshore wind farm in Donghai. The $1.14 billion project had generated 3.5 billion kilowatt hours of electricity up until the end of March.
The project, in which EDF holds a 37.5% interest and CEI holds the remainder, is located 40 kilometres from shore in the East China Sea and has 125 wind turbines.
Liu Guoyue, CEI chairman, called on its French partner to promote projects to better benefit the people of China, France and other nations where the projects are located.
CEI is a state-owned power utility established in 2017, following the merger of China Guodian Corporation and Shenhua Group.
In addition to China, it also operates in more than 10 countries and regions including the United States and Canada.