French energy giant Total is partnering with Spanish renewable energy group Ignis to develop a 3.3GW of solar power projects in Spain.

Total said that the new Spanish solar power projects will be built near Madrid and Andalusia. The French oil and gas giant is expecting the first of the solar power plants will begin operations in 2022, with the remaining to come online by 2025.

Total will pay an undisclosed remuneration to Ignis for developing the solar power projects.

Prior to the deal with Ignis, Total had signed agreements with Powertis and Solarbay Renewable Energy in February for developing approximately 2GW of solar power plants across Spain.

The three deals in Spain will take Total’s solar capacity in the country to over 5GW.

By 2025, Total expects to meet the overall electricity demands of its European industrial locations. For achieving this, the French energy company plans to sign power purchase agreements (PPA) for nearly 6TWh per year coming from over 3GW capacity of its Spanish solar power plants.

Patrick Pouyanné – Chairman and CEO of Total said: “Total is becoming one of the main broad-energy players in the country by intervening both in the production of renewable and gas-based electricity and in the distribution of gas and electricity. Our ambition, first and foremost, is to provide a clean, affordable electricity offering to our residential customers in Spain.

“Spain is a priority country for Total in Europe and we fully intend to leverage the market’s growth opportunities that the country offers to respond concretely to the challenges of the energy transition towards carbon neutrality.

“This decision to invest massively in renewable electricity capacity to supply all our industrial operations in Europe with green energy is concrete proof of our decision to move towards decarbonising our European operations in line with our new climate ambition. It also demonstrates the value of integrating production, trading and sales in the electricity chain.”

  Andalusia, Ignis, Madrid, Patrick Pouyanne, Solar industry news, Spain, Total