Wind Energy Takes Centre Stage at COP28

COP28, being held in Dubai, has served as an ideal platform seeing major wind firms and countries join hands on noteworthy agreements on the setting up of wind farms. These agreements run into several gigawatts. 

1 GW TotalEnergies AoI

On the COP28 platform, French firm, TotalEnergies has entered into an agreement on investment (AoI) with the government of Kazakhstan. The agreement will pave the way for the establishment of the 1GW Mirny onshore wind farm in Kazakhstan.

160 turbines will be installed, in combination with a 600MWh battery energy storage system, as per the agreement. The project sees an investment of close to US$1.4bn.

The PPA was signed back in in June this year and the announcement of the investment follows it.

TotalEnergies will be responsible for the development of the Mirny project with the National Wealth Fund Samruk-Kazyna and the National Company KazMunayGas as partners. Each will have a 20% stake in the project.

The AoI will triple the power generation capacity of TotalEnergies from 33TWh to over 100TWh by the end of the decade.

500 MW Tyligulska Wind Project

Ukranian firm DTEK has signed a landmark MoU with Danish wind turbine manufacturer for the construction of Eastern Europe’s largest wind farm- the Tyligulska Wind Power Plant with a capacity of 500 MW with an investment exceeding 650 miliion euros.

The second phase of the wind farm will feature 64 wind turbines, adding 384 MW to the existing 114 MW from the first stage commissioned in Spring 2023.

The construction will begin in the second quarter of 2024, targeting completion by the end of 2025. Investment for phase II amount to 450 million euros.

Masdar in Malaysia 

Masdar has signed an implementation roadmap with the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) for developing up to 10 GW of renewable energy projects in the Southeast Asian country.

At COP28, five agreements with different counterparties have been signed. Other than the construction of onshore wind farms, the projects will also entail ground mounted, rooftop and floating solar power plants and BESS.

Among the deals signed at COP28, there is an agreement with Malaysian firm Citaglobal Bhd and Tiza Global for 2 GW of solar plants, and an MoU with Citaglobal and TNB Renewables to set up another 2 GW of renewable energy projects.

A partnership has also been forged with Tadau Energy and PSK for 2 GW of wind power, along with an agreement with Cypark Resources Bhd renewable energy projects of up to 1 GW.

Sierra Leone’s First Wind Farm 

As per the announcement made at COP28, Sierra Leone is set to welcome its first wind farm at Sherbro Island. Towards this, the generation unit of Octopus Energy has joined hands with Idris Elba and Sherbro Alliance Partners (SAP) to realise this goal. The agreement will pave the path for collection of important data to usher investment into renewable energy on Sherbro Island, across Sierra Leone and beyond. Octopus will be responsible for the construction of the project in Sierra Leone in 2024.

Under the project, up to five wind turbines and solar panels that will be equipped with batteries will produce clean electricity for local communities.