Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) and French electric utility company EDF signed an agreement to establish a 50:50 joint venture energy services company named ESCO, EDF said on Wednesday.
The aim of the joint venture is to expand into non utility-scale renewables and energy-efficiency investments, such as building energy efficiency, solar technology below 50 megawatts and industrial waste heat recovery, mainly in the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman.
'Along with Masdar, our ambition is to develop innovative solutions to optimize energy consumption and reduce the carbon footprint of our customers in the Middle East and in other countries where both companies already cooperate,' Marianne Laigneau, group senior executive vice president of EDF in charge of the international division, said.
The two companies already have a successful history of working together with several innovative joint renewable energy projects in the pipeline.
In May, EDF, through its subsidiary EDF Renewables, Masdar and Moroccan independent power producer Green of Africa, was approved to design, construct, operate and carry out maintenance of the Noor Midelt I multi-technologies solar power plant in Morocco.
The 800-megawatt solar project is based on two technologies, concentrated solar power and photovoltaic, the hybridization of which is a world first.
In August, the consortium of EDF Renewables and Masdar announced that they had reached financial close on the 400-megawatt Dumat Al Jandal wind project in Saudi Arabia, the country’s first utility-scale wind farm that will be the largest in the Middle East when completed.
Both companies are also partners in developing the third phase of the 800-megawatt MBR Solar Park in Dubai, 200 megawatts of which was commissioned in 2018 and 300 megawatts is expected to enter into service in 2019. Phase 3 is part of what will be the largest single-site solar park in the world with a planned capacity of 5,000 megawatts by 2030.
By Zeynep Beyza Kilic
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr