Since 2018, a number of partnerships have been developed with stakeholders in the sector (manufacturers, equipment manufacturers, leasers, leasing companies, charging station manufacturers) to propose custom electric mobility solutions. The new partnerships entered into in 2021 were:
| Volkswagen, Toyota, Vinfast |
The EDF group entered into partnership agreements with the carmakers Volkswagen, Toyota, and Vinfast to help transition their customers to electric powertrains. These agreements include promoting attractive EDF electricity supply offers to vehicle purchasers in line with expectations on the part of consumers (Vert électrique Auto, Vert Électrique Régional) and companies (Contrat flexible), as well as Group charging solutions. |
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| BMW group | In Belgium, Luminus entered into a strategic partnership with BMW group Belux to develop offers for dealerships, companies, and consumers over a period of three years, spanning charging infrastructures and fleet consumption monitoring. |
The EDF group is the first French group to sign the “EV 100”, which aims at having a fleet of 100% electric light vehicles by 2030. This project covers almost 45,000 vehicles and charging infrastructures on almost 2,000 sites worldwide, around half of which had already been equipped by the end of 2021.
In the UK, EDF is applying its EV 100 commitment by introducing a catalogue of very low emission vehicles, alongside an electrification rate for its fleet of 10.7%. As of the end of 2021, the electrification rate of the Luminus car fleet stood at 40%.
| EV 100 commitment | 2030 Target | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proportion of electric vehicles in the EDF group’s light vehicle fleet | Proportion of electric vehicles in the EDF group’s light vehicle fleet 2030 Target100% |
Proportion of electric vehicles in the EDF group’s light vehicle fleet 2020 12.2% |
Proportion of electric vehicles in the EDF group’s light vehicle fleet 2021 17.3% |
The use of renewable hydrogen and low-carbon electrolytic hydrogen offers attractive solutions to decarbonise sectors for which direct electrification is not possible. These include refining, chemicals, and heavy-duty transport.
| Hynamics | In 2019, EDF decided to set up Hynamics, a new fully-owned subsidiary, with the aim of becoming a leading producer of low-carbon hydrogen through electrolysis of water. Hynamics aims to achieve a low-carbon economy by targeting segments of industry and transport that emit large quantities of CO2 and are hard to serve with low-carbon electricity (refineries, chemical and cement production facilities, buses, trains, sea and river shuttles, aeronautics, etc.). Based on its investor and operator/maintainer model, it offers turnkey solutions to its customers in France and more generally in Europe. |
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In partnership with the cement group Vicat, the Hynovi project is aiming to create France’s first decarbonised methanol production system using captured CO2 combined with hydrogen produced by water electrolysis, totalling over 330MW. Located in Isère on the Montalieu site, the French government has pre-notified the European Commission of the project in respect of IPCIE-H2 (Important Project of Common European Interest for Hydrogen). With production of 200,000 tonnes of synthetic methanol per year, equivalent to one quarter of national consumption, and commissioning planned for 2026, the project aims to avoid almost 500,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.
Hynamics also successfully bid on mobility-related ADEME (French Environmental & Energy Management Agency) calls for projects to supply energy for buses for the Auxerrois and Grand Belfort Urban Districts. As a result, Hynamics and Transdev have launched the largest renewable hydrogen production and distribution site in France, in Auxerre. Dubbed AuxHYGen, the facility has a capacity of 1MW and can produce up to 400kg of green hydrogen per day via water electrolysis. This first achievement will avoid 2,200 tonnes of CO2 emissions every year. It powers five hydrogen buses (20% of the fleet) operated by Transdev Auxerrois on the urban transport network. The aim is to extend the production capacities of these installations from 1 to 3MW by 2025 to support the deployment of all types of hydrogen use, notably the hydrogen-powered trains ordered from Alstom by the Bourgogne Franche Comté Region.
In Belfort, the urban district council has signed a first agreement with Hynamics for the sale of hydrogen via a hydrogen production and distribution station with the capacity to power 7 buses by 2023. An order for 20 additional buses is already planned by the public transport operator, bringing the total number of zero-emission buses on the road to 27 (50% of the fleet). The station will also allow local industries to be powered by decarbonised hydrogen.
In August 2020, the Westküste100 joint venture, in which Hynamics is a 24% shareholder, was awarded €15 million to install a 30MW electrolyser, one of Europe’s biggest, on the Heide refinery site in Schleswig Holstein as part of the German Reallabor programme. Extension of the project, known as Hyscale100, involves deploying almost 2GW of electrolysis capacity by 2030 to address the hydrogen needs of the refinery, as well as to produce synthetic fuels. The German government has pre-notified the European Commission of the project in respect of IPCIE-H2 (Important Project of Common European Interest for Hydrogen).
In 2020, with the support of Hynamics, Luminus positioned itself on several projects to develop, finance, construct, and operate hydrogen production facilities in Belgium. As early as November 2019, Luminus had already entered into an agreement with Terranova as part of the European Commission’s “Green Octopus” programme. The aim is to make the port of Ghent one of the suppliers of green hydrogen in Belgium, in order to achieve decarbonisation of industrial uses, heavy-duty mobility, and the supply chain. The project involves connecting Luminus wind turbines and Terranova’s solar power plants to an electrolyser to produce green hydrogen starting in 2022-2023. Detailed studies are underway for the planned construction of a 1MW electrolyser on the Terranova site. The second phase of the project could reach up to 5MW. Two other partnerships have been entered into at Mouscron and in Picardy Wallonia.
(1) Currently, 95% of hydrogen is manufactured using fossil fuels; since this process generates CO2, it is referred to as “grey” hydrogen. Hydrogen (H2) can either be created from methane by means of steam reforming, or by splitting a water molecule (H2O) by electrolysis, i.e. by means of an electric current. Hydrogen is considered to be “green” if the electrolysis in question is produced by renewable energy, or low-carbon energy if it is produced using nuclear electricity. “Green” or “low-carbon” H2 is thus an attractive way of decarbonising sectors in which direct electrification is not possible. Such sectors include refining, chemicals, and heavy-duty transport.
