Total

The energy transition is becoming ever more apparent among power companies, as was evident at the European Utility Week event last week in Paris, which showcased the hopes and fears of energy companies. Rebranding next year to ‘Enlit’, the organizers aim to reach the whole energy industry.

Exxon Mobil and BP did not produce figures for their clean energy investment activity and Total responded only with its ‘low carbon electricity’ spending. Shell stated it had invested €1.6 billion in clean energy from late 2016 up to June and Chevron gave details of its spending to reduce emissions and enable ‘greater diversity of energy sources’.

Two high-profile bankruptcies this year could serve as a warning for the potential pitfalls of pay-as-you-go and small scale, off-grid solar. However, Marcus Wiemann and David Lecoque of the Alliance for Rural Electrification say such business models can lead to long-term success and have a key role to play in providing power to the 1 billion people throughout the world who still live without electricity.

The Total Solar International PV unit of the French oil giant has started construction of a large scale plant in Osato, in the prefecture of Miyagi, Japan. With its third solar project in Japan, Total will reach 100 MW of installed generation capacity in less than two years.

The French oil giant and China’s Envision Group are forming a joint venture offering PV systems combined with energy management solutions. Total Eren is also involved in a 100 MW solar project in Uzbekistan.

A consortium led by Jinko Power and Korea Electric Power Corp., as well as another group led by Japanese conglomerate Marubeni and French energy group Total, have submitted bids for Qatar’s 700 MW solar tender. The final results will be announced in September.

The Kazakh solar market is steadily growing amid investment from regional development banks and independent power producers. Total Eren said the 128 MW of generation capacity is just the first of its projects in central Asia.

Renewable energy investment in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding China, will overtake spending on oil and gas exploration and production by 2020, finds Norwegian consultancy Rystad Energy. And Australia is set to emerge as one of the leading investment destinations.

Saft, a subsidiary of French oil giant Total, is joining forces with Chinese storage specialist Tianneng to grow in China’s energy storage and EV markets. Tianneng will take a 60% stake in the newly created joint venture, with Saft holding the other 40%.

With no details reported on the final electricity price agreed for a 500 MW solar project to be built in Oman, speculation will center on whether the victorious Saudi power company and its Kuwaiti partners have again trumped lower offers from overseas rivals.