French firm keen on cutting carbon

The TEESS joint venture－involving France's TotalEnergies and China's green technology giant Envision Group－expects its on-site distributed generation solar projects for commercial and industrial customers in China to reach 100 megawatts in operation and 50 MW under construction, less than 18 months after its founding, the JV said.

Focusing on both commercial and industrial customers, which account for approximately two-thirds of Chinese power consumption, TEESS vowed to further provide low-carbon energy solutions and become one of China's largest service providers in the distributed photovoltaic sector.

Its current target is to achieve over 500 MW of installed solar capacity by the end of 2022. Over 50 percent of this capacity is already covered by long-term power purchase agreements, it said.

William Zhao, country chair of TotalEnergies China, the local unit of TotalEnergies, said the government's recent announcement that it would scrap subsidies for new centralized PV stations, distributed photovoltaic projects and onshore wind power projects will encourage healthy and sustainable development of the country's renewable energy sector.

The withdrawal of subsidies will not affect TotalEnergies' ambitions in the country's clean energy sector, and the company will continue investing in China's solar and wind sector with or without subsidies, Zhao said during an interview with China Daily.

The company's solar projects in China have been developing rapidly during the past year despite the impact of COVID-19, said Zhao, adding that the company will also step up development of hydrogen and energy storage in the country to further take advantage of the massive opportunities in China and work closely with local partners to provide efficient solutions for energy transition.

He said earlier that China's pared-down negative list in recent years in sectors including energy and banking has been well received and the company looks forward to what happens next in the country.

"We are committed to supporting our JV with Envision in growing its footprint in the booming Chinese commercial and industrial market at an accelerated pace as part of our strategy to continuously expand our presence in the country, the world's largest photovoltaic market," said Julien Pouget, senior vice-president of Renewables at TotalEnergies.

Saft, a leading high-tech battery provider under TotalEnergies that serves market sectors ranging from civil electronics to rail transportation markets, also wants to benefit from future expansion of the market in China.

The company signed an agreement with Tianneng Energy Technology, a subsidiary of Tianneng Group, in 2019 to create a JV to expand lithium-ion activity, producing for the target markets of electric bikes, electric vehicles and energy storage solutions in China and worldwide.

In November 2020, Saft opened a new manufacturing hub for energy storage solutions in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, with a manufacturing capacity of 200 containers per year, which is equivalent of 480 megawatt hours.

TotalEnergies vowed to further step up cooperation with Chinese partners in carbon capture, utilization and storage－an important option for reducing CO2 emissions in the energy sector, which will be essential to achieving carbon neutrality.