Portuguese energy utility EDP will spend €1.3 billion (US$1.5 billion) in France to build 1GW of solar, wind and energy storage assets over the next four years.
The company announced the plan at the ninth “Choose France” conference in Versailles yesterday, where the French presidency seeks to secure international investment in France.
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President Macron announced a total of €93 billion in investments at the close of the summit, across a range of sectors including energy and AI.
EDP will allocate the money to offshore and onshore wind, solar and energy storage projects across France through its subsidiary EDP Renewables and Ocean Winds, its joint venture with French energy firm Engie. The company has already developed 800MW of solar and wind projects in France.
“France plays a pivotal role in Europe’s energy transition and EDP is firmly committed to supporting countries that choose low carbon and sustainable energy as a lever for energy independence”, said Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade, CEO of the EDP Group.
EDP Group said that France and Europe will play a “key role” in its business plan until 2028, under which it plans to invest €12 billion across four global regions. 70% of that investment will go to wind, solar and energy storage, the company claimed, and 30% to network development.
EDP framed its investment around the growing concerns about energy security in Europe. It said the “strong presence” of solar and wind in an energy system “enhances system resilience and protects economies from geopolitical crises through an ‘electric shield’, locally produced.”
“The current environmental and geopolitical context calls for accelerating the deployment of new decarbonised generation capacity to reduce dependence on fossil fuel imports,” its statement continued.
Last week, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, said that the energy crisis arising from the US/Israel-Iran conflict would “reshape” global energy investment strategies.
The IEA expects almost twice as much global investment to go towards grids, energy storage, low-emissions fuels, nuclear, renewables, efficiency and electrification in 2026 than towards fossil fuel investments, despite the elevated price of oil and gas on global markets. However, it added that almost three-quarters of those investments for 2026 were decided before the energy crisis began, meaning that the true effects of the shock are yet to be felt or realised.
