Framatome R&D aims to master the most advanced technologies, in order to attain the highest standards of safety and performance for its activities as a designer and supplier of nuclear steam supply systems, nuclear equipment and services, as well as fuel.
This R&D activity is primarily carried out within Framatome’s development teams and Technical Centres, in partnership with EDF R&D.
International partnerships have also been set up.
A major avenue of research concerns support for the development of renewable energies in France and internationally. For renewable energies, storage and hydrogen, EDF R&D’s goal is to:
EDF is investigating a wide range of low carbon hydrogen technologies and storage solutions: hydropower, photovoltaics, onshore and offshore wind power, solar thermodynamic power, biomass, marine energies, geothermal power, electrochemical batteries, flywheels, thermal storage, thermochemical storage, flow cells, supercapacitors, electrolysers, fuel cells (hydrogen) and thermal energy storage (heat and cold).
In the field of offshore wind power, R&D has developed specific modelling tools for the hydrodynamic and mechanical sizing of fixed and floating offshore wind turbines.
R&D is also working to develop tools and methods to enhance operational performance and optimise the cost of projects on electricity generation systems that are based on renewable energies, projects on storage and systems for hydrogen generation by electrolysis power by EDF group low carbon electricity.
Climate change, the marked decline in biodiversity and Earth’s limited resources make EDF a legitimate choice for a low carbon energy mix. The aim of the R&D Division’s initiatives is:
For many years, EDF has set up research teams dedicated to biodiversity issues. An ambitious research programme is seeking to develop high-performance tools to assess and manage the impacts of EDF’s production resources on biodiversity and constantly improve biodiversity in the vicinity of power plants.
Since early 2022, R&D has also been contributing to the project to adapt nuclear units in the face of climate change.
Energy transition towards a low-carbon economy in Europe hinges on strong integration of variable and decentralised renewable energies, in particular on the distribution network. This integration requires more intelligent electrical systems, or smart grids, to be developed, in order to have the capacity to manage a more decentralised electricity systems, with a much higher number of stakeholders. The major issues are technical, economic and regulatory, and this will involve taking on new challenges such as:
These challenges require work on the transmission and distribution grid materials, generation and storage means, their communication functionalities and protocols, on control materials and methods, and also on the economy of consumption, electricity services and the related markets.
The digital transition impacts the entire electric power system and is a key driver of the electric and climate transitions described above. The information technology research programme focuses on:
To conduct its research and development programmes, EDF R&D nurtures a large number of partnerships both in France and internationally. The goals are to attain the highest international levels in the disciplines at the heart of the EDF group’s key challenges and to supplement its in-house skills and direct academic research towards R&D that is relevant for the EDF group.
R&D’s partnership policy is embodied in a variety of ways, both nationally and internationally.
R&D has entered into framework agreements with major public research organisations. The main academic partner in France is the French national research agency (CNRS). Over the past few years, R&D has also set up about twenty laboratories and teams on a joint basis with academic partners and technical or industrial centres. These include FiME (Energy Finance and Markets, Finances et marchés énergies), GIS SEISM (earthquakes) and SEIDO (Internet of things and Cybersecurity). A new team known as LARTISSTE (Statistical Learning and Uncertainty Processing) with a large number of industrial and academic partners has also been created. With its partners, it is participating in collaborative research projects funded by several national or European agencies.
