POWER September 2020 - 11

GLOBAL MONITOR
3. Saft is leading Total's efforts to gain a foothold
in the global energy storage market. In
January 2020, the company announced it will
build a pilot electric vehicle battery manufacturing
plant at its Nersac facility in France. The
plant will be followed by a larger 8-GWh battery
storage production facility in the northern
Hauts-de-France region, followed by a second
of equal capacity in Germany. Total wants to
reach 48 GWh of combined production capacity
by 2030, which would represent about 10%
of the European market. Courtesy: Saft
Shell Goes Net-Zero, Boosts Renewables
Acquisitions. Shell, a company that
has notably made strides in the power
space through its 2016-created New Energies
division, this April also went netzero.
The company has made a series of
lucrative acquisitions over the past two
years: In 2018, it snapped up UK power
retailer First Utility, and in 2019, it acquired
German battery storage system
firm sonnen; Australian energy company
ERM Power; French floating wind
developer EOLFI; and California-based
Greenlots, a company that provides EV
charging posts, charging network software,
and grid services across the U.S.
and has a growing presence in Canada,
Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. Shell
also acquired substantial interests in offshore
wind project developments. It is
part of the Blauwwind consortium in the
Netherlands; it is partnering with EDF
Renewables for offshore wind projects
off the New Jersey coast; and it has minority
interests in Silicon Ranch Corp., a
U.S. solar developer, and Cleantech Solar,
which provides solar power to commercial
and industrial customers across
Southeast Asia and India. Shell has said
that between 2021 and 2025, its investments
in power could grow to $2 billion
to $3 billion per year on average.
Total Doubles Down on Wind and Solar.
French oil giant Total, perhaps one of the
earliest Big Oil movers into the power
space, has already deployed 3 GW of renewables
capacity. While it is already a
major power supplier in Europe through
Total Direct Energy and Lampiris, it is
now looking to expand its installed base
to 25 GW of renewables globally within
the next five years, leveraging the expertise
of recently established affiliates
September 2020 | POWER
Total Solar, Total Eren, Total Quadran, and
SunPower. The base will likely include investments
in solar PV, and onshore and
offshore wind power. But Total is also notably
banking heavily on energy storage,
acquiring battery maker Saft (Figure 3)
for $1.1 billion in 2017. It recently expanded
that subsidiary's footprint into the
distributed energy and microgrid sector
through the June 2019 acquisition of U.S.
firm Go Electric.
Repsol Bracing for Energy Transition.
Spanish oil firm Repsol, which also has
net-zero ambitions by 2050, has so far installed
about 3 GW of power generating
capacity. Most of it is gas-fired, clustered
in Spain, but it also includes three hydropower
projects, a total of 700 MW, in
northern Spain. It is also a collaborative
partner in the innovative WindFloat Atlantic
project (a 2020 POWER Top Plant).
Repsol is now developing more than 1
GW of wind and solar, and it is targeting
7.5 GW of low-carbon generation capacity
by 2025.
Equinor Capitalizing on Offshore Wind.
Norwegian state-owned Equinor, a
company formerly known as Statoil, is
already a brand-name offshore wind developer.
By 2026, Equinor wants to install
up to 6 GW of renewables capacity
and expand that capacity to between 12
GW and 16 GW by 2035, depending on
" availability of attractive project opportunities. "
Equinor, notably, is also engaged
in building a European value chain to capture
and store carbon dioxide from thirdparty
industrial sites, and it's " prepared
for future growth in hydrogen, " which it
has said offers large-scale opportunities
for " zero-emission energy. " One interesting
project it is spearheading is the conversion
of Vattenfall's Magnum gas-fired
power plant in the Netherlands to run on
hydrogen by 2023 (Figure 4).
Chevron Ramps Up Renewables. U.S.based
Chevron, which already considers
itself an integrated energy company, on
July 30 announced an agreement with
Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. to codevelop
500 MW of renewable power
projects over the next four years. Initial renewable
power projects are expected to
be sited on Chevron land, and construction
is planned to start in 2021. " The projects
will be focused on powering Chevron's operations
in the U.S. Permian Basin (Texas
and New Mexico), Argentina, Kazakhstan
and Western Australia, " the company said.
Chevron is also relying on technology innovation
to boost its future portfolio. In
August, for example, in a notable move
for a Big Oil firm, it announced a Series A
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POWER September 2020

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