TotalEnergies will supply Air Liquide's South African oxygen plant with renewable electricity

"TotalEnergies will develop a 120 MW photovoltaic solar power plant and a 140 MW wind farm in the Western Cape province," the group announced in a press release.

"These projects will supply approximately 850 GWh per year of green electricity to Sasol's Secunda site, located approximately 700 kilometers to the northeast, where Air Liquide operates the largest oxygen production unit in the world", specifies the major. French hydrocarbons.

This site, made up of 16 factories - air gas separation units which can produce 42.000 tonnes of oxygen per day - was bought in mid-June 2021 by Air Liquide from Sasol, for around 480 million euros. The two groups then announced that they had launched a call for tenders to supply 600 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy to the site by 2025.

A first contract was announced in January with Enel Green Power, for a capacity of 220 MW. "Together, these contracts bring to 480 MW the renewable energy capacities acquired by Air Liquide and Sasol, as part of their commitment to secure a total capacity of 900 MW of renewable energies", welcomed Air Liquide in a separate press release.

"Power purchase agreements with companies are a dynamic market, in which we want TotalEnergies to be one of the main leaders," said Vincent Stoquart, Renewables director at TotalEnergies, quoted in the press release.

The multinational is investing more in renewable energies: 5 billion dollars in 2023 (compared to 4 in 2022), out of 16 to 18 billion in total investments.

But TotalEnergies continues to develop gas projects - as in the United States, Lebanon and Qatar - or oil projects in Africa, to the point that IPCC experts accused it in early February in a column published on Franceinfo of "disqualifying energy transition roadmaps based on reducing energy demand".