According to the scenario put forward by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the share of renewable energies in the global energy mix is expected to increase sharply, from 9% currently to more than 20% in 2035. Alongside natural gas, the least carbon-intensive fossil fuel, renewables will make it possible both to meet the world’s growing demand for electricity and to limit global warming.Electricity will be the energy of the 21st century. Over the next 20 years, electricity demand will increase faster than the demand for energy as a whole. With this in mind, we are committed to meeting this need by adapting our energy mix to give greater prominence to natural gas and renewables. This approach serves to further our bold ambition of becoming the responsible energy major.Becoming the responsible energy major means developing new businesses, new activities and cutting-edge technologies in the area of renewable energies, with the ambition of expanding their share in our portfolio by 2035.To make this happen, we are aiming to increase our low carbon electricity* production capacity to five ten gigawatts within five years, leveraging the expertise of our affiliates Total Solar, SunPower, Total Eren and Quadran.
Through our affiliates, we are developing our positions in solar power generation capacity but also wind and hydraulic power. We do everything from manufacturing cells to selling green power, not to mention operating solar farms and installing decentralized solutions for individuals and industrial and commercial customers.
These positions in renewable power generation are complemented by investments in storage capacity via the expertise of our Saft affiliate. Energy storage is a major challenge for the future of power grids and serves as a critical ally to renewable energies, which are inherently intermittent.
Lastly, as part of our goal to diversify our energy mix, we are also investing in bioenergies, hydraulic and wind energy through our stake in Total Eren.
Storage is quite possibly the greatest challenge facing the solar industry. For solar energy to become indispensable, the power it produces must be able to be delivered when we need it most, that is, at night and in the winter. This implies storing energy during the day and distributing it outside of periods of sunshine.
At Total, we are convinced that optimizing storage is key to the expansion of renewable energies, provided that it is backed by technologies that are safe and competitive, both economically and technically. To rise to this challenge, we acquired Saft, the world leader in advanced-technology batteries for industry, whose next-generation lithium-ion batteries can store a large amount of electricity in a small amount of space.