Oil giant Total flexes renewable muscle with stake in Adani solar portfolio

French oil and gas giant Total has extended its reach into renewables this week, in a $US510 million deal with India’s Adani Group to help fast-track the roll-out of big solar across the sub-continent.

The deal, announced by Total on Thursday, will create a 50/50 joint venture into which Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL) will transfer its Indian solar assets already in operation.

Those solar projects – each with around 25-year, fixed-rate power purchase agreements with national and regional electricity distributors – span across 11 Indian states and have a cumulative capacity of over 2GW.

The new deal – Total and Adani already have already joined forces in India’s natural gas market – marks another small step away from fossil fuels and towards clean energy development and generation by some of the world’s biggest energy heavyweights.

Adani – which is still firmly attached to coal, including the massive carbon bomb it is developing in Queensland’s Galilee Basin – has grand plans for renewables, not least in Australia where it opened its first grid-scale PV project in October last year, also in Queensland.

Total, too, has been trying to change its spots, with plans to contribute to the deployment of 25GW of renewable generation capacity by 2025.

In Australia it has been active via offshoot Total Eren – a deep pocketed joint venture with Eren – which is the developer behind the massive 200MW Kiamal solar and battery storage project in Victoria.

“Total is fully engaged in the energy transition and to supporting India, a key country in the fight against climate change, in diversifying its energy mix through partnerships in natural gas and now in solar energy,” said Patrick Pouyanné, the company’s CEO and chairman.

“This interest in over 2GW of solar projects represents another big step of our investment in India’s energy sector,” he said.

Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani said in a separate statement that the deal with Total reinforced the “immense potential” in India’s renewable energy sector, as well as Adani’s commitment to sustainable development.

“This is a pivotal step in our journey towards building the world’s largest solar power company by 2025 and the world’s largest renewable power company by 2030,” he said.