'Massive scale up' | Oil giants TotalEnergies and Baker Hughes back Zhero Europe renewables push

A powerful group of companies hailing from the oil and gas sector have teamed up with other investors and agreed to back Zhero Europe, a vehicle for developing large scale renewable energies projects in Europe and Africa.

In a statement on the preliminary agreement announced today (Thursday), French supermajor TotalEnergies said it was joining up with oilfield services giant Baker Hughes and engineering and construction outfit Technip Energies, along with European asset manager Azimut and other investors, in order to step up investments in the renewables space.

TotalEnergies added that Zhero Europe was founded with the vision that large integrated projects, including generation from high quality wind and solar resources, and captive long-distance exports, would be the most effective way to accelerate the energy transition in high demand areas "at at a time when a new generation of renewables are positioned for massive scale-up."

Zhero Europe's investments will encompass renewable power generation , power interconnections and green molecule, according to its vision statements.

"With this round of financing, Zhero Europe will advance the development of its project portfolio, leveraging the world class expertise of its new investors." TotalEnergies stated.

'No time to lose'

Two of the founders of Zhero Europe, chairman Paddy Padmanathan, who is also chief executive at Saudi power giant ACWA, and CEO Alessandra Pasini, commented on the funding agreement: "We are thrilled to welcome new investors who share our ambition to accelerate the energy transition by delivering large scale bankable projects that will inspire others to follow.

"Green energy is already cheaper than fossil fuels in many countries and we need to accelerate project development and construction to mitigate the growing gap between climate action and climate ambition. There is no time to lose.”

As part of its own strategy to get to net zero by 2050, TotalEnergies says it is building a portfolio of activities in electricity and renewables. At the end of July 2023, TotalEnergies' reported that its gross renewable electricity generation installed capacity was 19GW.

The company is developing green energy production and infrastructure projects in the US, Europe, the Middle East and Africa and has set a target of taking 5GW of projects beyond final investment decision by 2026.

The company's targets for gross production capacity from renewable sources and storage are for 35GW by 2025, and then 100GW by 2030 "with the objective of being among the world's top five producers of electricity from wind and solar energy.

Stephane Michel, head of gas, renewables & power at TotalEnergies added: “Zhero Europe’s bold ambition is to bring abundant, affordable and clean energy from the best producing location to the large consuming markets and notably from North Africa, to Europe.

"We welcome the opportunity to join forces with Zhero Europe and its other investors to support the development of those pioneering projects for the mutual benefit of Europe and Africa.”

Azimut's participation in the initiative will be throught its Azimut ELTIF – Infrastructure & Real Assets ESG fund.