French total oil and gas Total buys four large-scale solar energy projects plus battery storage assets in Texas, with which it intends to meet the electricity demand of all its industrial sites in the United States, including the Port Refining and Petrochemical Platform Arthur and the La Porte and Carville Petrochemical Sites.
The French oil major, which has expanded its renewable energy portfolio and signed a number of green energy purchase agreements (PPPs) in recent months, is buying the four solar projects, for a total of 2.2 gigawatts (GW). plus 600 MW of battery storage assets from SunChase Power and private energy investments MAP RE / ES. All projects, each with battery storage systems (BESS), are in industrial areas near Houston with high electricity demand and are expected to go online between 2023 and 2024, Total said Friday.
The oil major will commit to a 1 GW corporate PPA from this solar and energy storage portfolio to cover the entire electricity consumption of its US industrial sites, including those in Port Arthur, La Porte and Carville.
“With this latest acquisition, Total is now developing nearly 4 GW of renewable energy capacity in the US, thus contributing to our goal of achieving almost 35 GW of renewable production capacity by 2025,” said Total President and CEO, Patrick Pouyanné, in a statement.
At the end of 2020, the total gross electricity generation capacity worldwide was about 12 GW, including almost 7 GW of renewable energy.
Total was the second largest corporate buyer of clean energy globally in 2020, after Amazon, BloombergNEF (BNEF) research showed last month. The main French oil and gas Total last year signed 3 GW of PPAs.
Total has acquired the largest portfolio of renewable energy among European oil majors since Big Oil began announcing zero net targets last year and has promised significant growth in renewable energy investment, according to Bloomberg data. Since announcing its new strategy and net-zero targets in September 2020, Total has purchased up to 8.8 GW of renewable energy, either operational or under construction or development.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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