French energy company TotalEnergies announced on December 20 that it will set up a series of PV and energy storage projects in New Caledonia to power the mining and metallurgy operations of consortium Prony Resources New Caledonia (PRNC). New Caledonia is an overseas French territory in the southwestern part of the Pacific Ocean. Comprising a string of islands, New Caledonia contains about a quarter of the world’s nickel resources. Hence, PRNC is a major nickel supplier to manufacturers for batteries and electric cars.
TotalEnergies will build ground-mounted PV power plants and energy storage plants in New Caledonia between 2022 and 2025. The total generation capacity of the PV power plants is set at 160MW, and the total storage capacity of the energy storage plants is set at 340MWh. The first batch of PV projects (or 30MW) will be in operation by 2023. TotalEnergies also stated that most of the installations will be sited on the land owned by the Grand Sud Hydrometallurgical Plant.
These projects will sell power under a 25-year PPA. According to the related coverage provided by other energy news websites, PRNC is working to decarbonize its processing and production facilities with the ultimate goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2040. The PV power plants and energy storage plants that TotalEnergies will be building are expected to meet about two-thirds of the on-site power demand from Grand Sud and offset 230,000MT of CO2 emissions. The additional renewable generation and energy storage assets will significantly increase the efficiency of the local operations and enhance PRNC’s environmental credential.
Thierry Muller, CEO of TotalEnergies Renewables France, said that the long-term partnership with PRNC will demonstrate the feasibility of the sustainable development of industrial activities in New Caledonia.
TotalEnergies is in the course of moving from the oil and gas sectors to the renewable and clean energy sectors. The aim of the company is to achieve net zero by 2050. To that end, the company will expand its gross production capacity from renewable sources and energy storage to 35GW by 2035 and 100GW by 2030. Also, the company strives to become one of the world’s top five producers of electricity from PV and wind power by 2030. As of September this year, TotalEnergies has a gross production capacity of just 10GW from renewable sources and energy storage.