TotalEnergies Launches Its Largest Solar Power Plant In France

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th November, 2021) French oil and gas company TotalEnergies has launched its largest solar power plant in the country as part of its plan to restructure its energy basket away from fossil fuels, according to a statement published on Monday.

"TotalEnergies has launched its largest photovoltaic solar power plant in France, with a capacity of 55 megawatts (MW)," the company said in a statement.

The company noted that the plant will produce about 64 GigaWatt hours (GWh) per year, which is equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 38,000 people. The plant will also keep over 550,000 tonnes of CO2 from escaping into the atmosphere during its entire service lifetime.

The plant is located in the central department of Loiret and consists of 126,000 photovoltaic panels spread over 75 hectares, the statement explained.

Some $2.5 million in construction financing came from local residents, the firm added.

"This commissioning contributes to France's energy transition and is a further step towards our goal of reaching 4 GW of renewable generation capacity by 2025," Thierry Muller, the company's CEO, said in the release.

French TotalEnergies is one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world.� The firm outlines a strategy, which is set for the decade until 2030, aiming to increase energy production based on liquefied natural gas, renewable energy sources and electricity. Besides, TotalEnergies expects its oil production to decrease from 55% to 30% over the decade.