EDF - 2.1 - Intro to EDF

Introduction to EDF

Start

Picture the scene

It’s 1998, and flared jeans, butterfly clips, and flannel shirts are all the rage. In the meantime, EDF (Électricité de France) has signed the contract to buy London Electricity. This is where their journey in the UK begins: 25 years ago. Since then, they’ve acquired several other energy businesses to become bigger and better, so they can provide more homes with carbon-free electricity.

During this quarter of a century, it’s safe to say EDF has been fairly busy. Here are a few things the company has been up to to help Britain achieve Net Zero:

In 2008 it opened the first wind farm in Britain, setting out to develop, build and operate renewables to help power the country

A year later, it merged with British Energy to become the key operator and custodian of nuclear power in Britain

In 2012 EDF became the sustainability partner of the London Olympics

That year, they apply to build the first nuclear power station in a generation, kickstarting the rebirth of nuclear energy in the UK, and became the energy supplier for the NHS and other public services (they were already powering Network Rail by this point)

In 2015, it launched a campaign to get more women into STEM, and committed to developing young careers (EDF has trained over 2000 apprentices since 2012). It also commissioned the first offshore wind farm

In 2021 it opened Britain’s first large-scale battery storage directly connected to the grid (we’ll come back to this later!)

2022 saw EDF begin to build solar farms

And 2023 was when the company’s last coal plant was closed, bringing their carbon levels to neutral zero at the point of generating energy

As you can see, there are a lot of exciting things going on in there, with plenty more planned for the future. That's the EDF difference! Now, let’s look now at some of the ways in which you can be a part of these plans…