TotalEnergies JV Bags 25-Year Wind Power Contract with NY
The Attentive Energy One project of TotalEnergies SE, Corio Generation, and Rise Light & Power, has been selected by New York State for a 25-year contract to supply 1.4 gigawatts (GW) of renewable electricity.
Attentive Energy One received the provisional award in the state’s 2023 competitive Offshore Renewable Energy Credits (OREC) solicitation, organized by the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA). The consortium aims to commission the project in 2029, TotalEnergies said in a news release Wednesday. The project is a joint venture owned by TotalEnergies with a 40 percent interest, Rise with a 35 percent interest, and Corio with a 25 percent interest.
The Attentive Energy One project will enable the construction of a new General Electric facility to manufacture offshore wind blades and nacelles and unlock $300 million in investments in various community-focused projects across New York State. Further, the project aims to turn Rise’s Ravenswood gas-fueled power plant into a clean energy hub at the heart of New York City, according to the release.
TotalEnergies noted that the profitability of this project is ensured by the guaranteed level of OREC revenue, the benefit of a 40 percent Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) tax credit, the secured access to the New York electricity grid brought by Rise, and the local supply of turbines by General Electric at a competitive set price.
Moreover, the contract awarded by NYSERDA will include an inflation adjustment mechanism to compensate for changes in construction costs until the final investment decision.
In February 2022, TotalEnergies secured 100 percent of maritime lease OCS-A 0538 at the New York Bight auction. Afterwards, it partnered with New York-based electricity producer Rise and global offshore wind developer Corio to join forces in the development of the Attentive Energy offshore wind projects.
The lease’s 3 GW capacity will serve two projects: Attentive Energy One, which is dedicated to servicing New York State, and Attentive Energy Two, which is dedicated to supplying New Jersey. Together, these two projects aim to provide green electricity to more than a million homes across both states, the company said.
“We are honored that the State of New York chose Attentive Energy One to deliver on the promise of bringing green electricity to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses”, TotalEnergies Senior Vice President Renewables Vincent Stoquart said. “Together with our partners Corio and Rise, we will mobilize all our expertise to develop a major offshore wind project that will contribute to New York State’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets”.
“Thanks to this project’s secured offtake price and competitive advantages such as the 40 percent IRA tax credit and its very competitive interconnection, [the] Attentive Energy One project will contribute positively to our Integrated Power profitability target of 12 percent and to our ambition of more than 100 TWh of power generation by 2030”, Stoquart added.
Launch of Solar Farm in Houston
Meanwhile, TotalEnergies has started commercial operations of Myrtle Solar, its utility-scale operated solar farm located south of Houston, Texas, the company said in a separate news release.
Myrtle has a capacity of 380 megawatts peak (MWp) of solar production and 225 megawatt-hours (MWh) of co-located batteries. With 705,000 ground-mounted photovoltaic panels installed over an area equivalent to 1,800 American football fields, Myrtle produces enough green electricity to cover the equivalent consumption of 70,000 homes, TotalEnergies said, adding that 70 percent of Myrtle’s capacity will supply green electricity to the company’s industrial plants in the U.S. Gulf Coast region.
The remaining 30 percent of Myrtle’s capacity will supply green electricity to Kilroy Realty, a publicly traded real estate company, under a 15-year corporate power purchase agreement (CPPA) indexed on merchant prices, TotalEnergies noted.
MyrtIe is part of a TotalEnergies project to enable it to cover the power needs and curtail the Scope 1+2 emissions of its industrial sites in Port Arthur and La Porte in Texas, and Carville in Louisiana by 2025. The project, which benefits from the IRA Tax Credit mechanisms, will positively contribute to TotalEnergies’ Integrated Power’s profitability target of 12 percent, the company said.
In addition to the photovoltaic installations, the solar power plant also features battery energy storage equipment to meet the need for grid stabilization. With a total capacity of 225 MWh, this storage is made of 114 energy storage systems (ESS) containers designed and assembled by TotalEnergies’ affiliate Saft, which develops cutting-edge industrial batteries.
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“We are very proud to start up Myrtle, TotalEnergies’ largest-to-date operated utility-scale solar farm with storage in the United States”, Stoquart said. “This startup is another milestone in achieving our goal to build an integrated and profitable position in Texas, where ERCOT is the main electrical grid operator. Besides, the project will enable the company to cover the power needs of some of its biggest U.S. industrial sites with electricity from a renewable source”.
“Given the advantages that IRA tax exemptions are generating, we will continue to actively develop our 25 GW portfolio of projects in operation or development in the United States, to contribute to the company’s global power generation target of more than 100 TWh [terawatt-hours] by 2030”, Stoquart concluded.
