India is the“one of the most fascinating countries” in the eyes of Patrick Pouyanné, as the boss of TotalEnergies wrote on Twitter, in 2020. One of the most important, above all, in the strategy of the French energy giant. The oil and gas major intends to establish itself as one of the five main world producers of renewable electricity by 2030, mainly thanks to wind or solar power. A way of partly changing its image, even if it foresees that its sales will still depend on this horizon for the most part on fossil fuels – gas and petroleum products –, therefore on energies responsible for global warming.
Problem: since the end of January, recent accusations have weakened Adani, TotalEnergies’ main Indian partner for gas, but also for renewable energies. An American hedge fund, Hindenburg Research, suspects the conglomerate led by Gautam Adani of accounting fraud.
However, despite the context, TotalEnergies intends to immediately retain its stake in Adani Green (20% since 2021), a subsidiary specializing in renewables. “The renewable projects in production and development of Adani Green in India are very concrete: they produce energy and generate income”declares to World TotalEnergies. The company does not see “no reason to want to stop the assets in production or the construction sites in progress”. “Our investment in India is industrial, not financial”she adds.
In terms of renewable electricity, the presence of TotalEnergies in India consists, for more than four-fifths, of participations with Adani. The remainder being represented by a joint venture between Total Eren and EDF Renewables.
India alone is home to almost a third of the gross installed renewable electricity capacity of the TotalEnergies group. That is to say those that are already operational for production, according to a count stopped in 2022. This is particularly due to solar panels, far ahead of onshore wind power, with respectively 4.9 gigawatts (GW) and 0, 4 GW of power. That is more than for North America (5.1 GW) or for France (1.5 GW). For the firm, India also constitutes a non-negligible share (16%) of “green” electricity projects under construction, with 1 GW under construction.
More “cautious” on hydrogen
On less advanced files, TotalEnergies is procrastinating. The group has recorded 4.5 GW of gross capacity in India called under development, ie identified projects whose construction has not yet started. “It is too early to say whether Adani Green’s growth rate will need to be adjusted”responds the company headed by Patrick Pouyanné about these projects.
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