Total buys 2.2 GW PV project pipeline

From pv magazine USA

French energy giant Total has acquired a 2.2 GW solar development pipeline, including 600 MW of battery storage assets – all in Texas.

It acquired the project pipeline from developer SunChase Power and private energy investment firm MAP RE/ES.  The portfolio consists of four planned large-scale solar projects, each with co-located battery energy storage systems, in industrial areas close to Houston that have high demand for electricity.

The acquisition comes less than a month after Total announced a joint venture with 174 Power Global, a unit of Hanwha Group, to develop 1.6 GW of solar and storage across the country.

The most recent acquisition means that Total is now developing close to 4 GW of renewable power capacity in the United States. This will contribute to its objective to reach close to 35 GW of renewable generation capacity throughout the world by 2025, said Patrick Pouyanné, chairman and CEO. The oil and gas major had close to 7 GW of renewable generation capacity worldwide at the end of 2020.

Construction of the first two projects is expected to start later this year. All of the projects are set to go online between 2023 and 2024. The remuneration paid by Total to SunChase and MAP RE/ES will be staged as the projects advance.

Total also said it will commit to a 1 GW corporate power purchase agreement sourced from this solar+storage portfolio to cover all electricity consumption at its industrial sites in the United States, including its Port Arthur refining and petrochemicals platform and La Porte and Carville petrochemical sites.

Pouyanné called the PPA “concrete proof” of the company’s ambition to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. He said that Total looks forward to “taking advantage of the many growth opportunities in the U.S. market to address the challenges of the energy transition.”