EDF Renewables has secured a 29% stake with a capital investment in the French remote microgrid developer Ecosun Innovations.
Ecosun Innovations, based in Alsace in northeastern France, is focussed on the development and supply of off-grid and ‘plug ‘n play’ mobile solutions for electrification in remote areas.
The Mobil-Watt mobile container solution is equipped with between 9 and 52kWp of solar panels and gel or lithium batteries for power provision after sunset.
The semi-mobile Mobil-Grid and stationary Fix-Watt solutions, also containerised, generate between 9 and 144kWp, with applications for power suppliers, industry, farming, retail and commercial operations that are off-grid or served by lower quality grids.
With the investment by EDF Renewables, amounting to a 29% stake in the company, Ecosun Innovations is to step up the pace of its development and ambitions to expand into the Middle East, South East Asia and then Australia. The company is already active with more than 20 containerised solutions in Africa, the Caribbean and South America.
“We are very proud of this cooperation with EDF Renewables, which will allow us to step up our industrial and commercial expansion still further and to increase the competitiveness of our products and their geographical reach,” says Frédéric Rohmer, chairman of Ecosun Innovations.
For EDF, the investment forms part of the Group’s global strategies to reach a net 50GW of renewable capacity by 2030 and to develop 10GW in new electricity storage resources by 2035.
“This investment reflects the EDF Group’s ambition to expand its microgrid offerings and to provide innovative solutions that balance global preservation and development,” explained Bruno Bensasson, chairman-CEO of EDF Renewables.
EDF currently operates 27 microgrids of between 10kW and 10MW mainly in remote areas. Its research and development group introduced the MASERA microgrid demonstrator in Singapore in 2018.
