The Renewable Energies Business Group at a Glance

Synergistic Business Units

Wind

AREVA Wind supplies proven, high capacity M5000 offshore wind turbines (5 MW) to convert the wind's motive power into electricity.

Bioenergies

This business unit combines Engineering, Procurement and Construction capabilities (EPC) with technologies for biomass power plants to convert organic plant and animal waste into energy.

Solar

AREVA Solar supplies turnkey solar power plants using the industry’s most profitable concentrated solar power technology.

Hydrogen and energy storage

This business offers hydrogen production solutions by water electrolysis and fuel cell-based power generation solutions. The electrolyzers use electricity to “split” the water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. In this concept, the hydrogen and oxygen are combined via a membrane to simultaneously create water, heat and electricity.

An international market

The Renewable Energies segment is changing rapidly. In terms of installed power, energy capacity from renewable sources exceeded that of fossil energies in the United States and Europe for the first time in 2008, at a total of more than 40 GW.

The 450 scenario of the World Energy Outlook 2011 published by the International Energy Agency (IEA) foresees a transformation of the power generation mix, with the share of renewable energies, excluding hydroelectricity, expected to rise steadily to nearly 13% of world electricity production by 2030, compared with slightly more than 3% in 2009.

The European Commission, for example, had presented ambitious objectives in 2008 designed to boost total consumption of renewable energies 20% by 2020.

In France, one of the objectives of the Grenelle Environment Round Table (Grenelle de l’environnement) is a 23% share from renewable energies production by 2020.

This growth is expected to be accompanied by a two-thirds increase of global demand for electricity over the same period.