Total Expands US Portfolio With Acquisition of 2.2 GW Solar Pipeline, 600 MW Storage

Total has strengthened its presence in the US market by acquiring a pipeline of 2.2 GW of solar projects, and 600 MW of battery storage assets

French major Total has announced that it has strengthened its presence in the US market by acquiring a development pipeline of 2.2 GW of solar projects, and 600 MW of battery storage assets, all located in Texas. 

The projects have been acquired from SunChase Power, a renewable energy company focused on developing utility-scale energy projects, and MAP RE/ES, a private energy investment firm.

The pipeline consists of four large-scale solar projects, each with co-located battery energy storage systems (BESS), in industrial areas close to Houston that have a high demand for electricity. Construction of the first two projects is expected to start later this year. All projects will come online between 2023 and 2024. The remuneration paid by Total to Sunchase and MAP RE/ES will be in staged payment as the project advance. 

Total will commit to a 1 GW corporate PPA sourced from this solar power and energy storage portfolio in order to cover all the electricity consumption of its operated industrial sites in the U.S., among which Port Arthur refining and petrochemicals platform and La Porte and Carville petrochemical sites.

“I am very pleased that Total is further contributing to the development of solar power in the U.S. We look forward to taking advantage of the many growth opportunities in the U.S. market to address the challenges of the energy transition, said Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of Total. “With this latest acquisition, Total is now developing close to 4 GW of renewable power capacity in the U.S., thus contributing to our objective to reach close to 35 GW of renewable generation capacity by 2025. In addition, supplying green electricity to all our industrial activities in the United States is concrete proof of our ambition to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.”

This announcement comes after recent news of a joint venture with 174 Power Global to develop solar and storage projects worth 1.6 GW in the United States. 174 Power, a wholly-owned Hanwha Group affiliate, had signed an agreement to form a 50/50 joint venture (JV) with Total to develop 12 utility-scale solar and energy storage projects.