PVTIME – France and China have signed several energy cooperation agreements, particularly in the nuclear and renewable energy sectors, during French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to China. French state-owned utility Electricite De France (EDF) and China Energy Investment Corporation (CHN Energy), both major energy suppliers, signed a cooperation agreement on renewable energy during the fifth meeting of the Franco-Chinese Business Council in Beijing on 6 March 2023.
The two sides plan to jointly build an offshore integrated smart energy island demonstration project in Dongtai, Jiangsu Province, including wind, solar, hydrogen and energy storage, with a total installed capacity of 1.5 GW, and will actively seek cooperation and investment opportunities for renewable energy projects in third markets.
EDF and CHN Energy have been working together for years in the field of clean energy. On 25 March 2019, they signed a cooperation agreement in Paris for the Dongtai IV and Dongtai V offshore wind power projects in Jiangsu Province. This particular project, the first Sino-foreign joint venture offshore wind power project in China with a total installed capacity of 500,000 kilowatts, was completed in 2021 with an investment of approximately RMB 8 billion yuan. And the Dongtai IV and V projects were connected to the grid in December 2019 and November 2021, respectively. By the end of March 2023, a total of 3.5 billion kWh of green electricity was supplied by the project, meeting the annual electricity needs of nearly 5 million residents, as one of the highest generating capacities of offshore wind power projects in China under similar conditions.
In addition, on 7 April 2023, France and China issued their latest joint statement on further cooperation in clean energy and the peaceful use of nuclear energy to achieve their shared desire for a low-carbon energy system. Companies from both sides are encouraged to explore the opportunities for industrial and technological cooperation on issues such as nuclear waste reprocessing.
