TotalEnergies is pushing ahead with a co-located battery storage and gigawatt-scale wind project in Kazakhstan, Central Asia.
France-headquartered oil & gas major TotalEnergies announced on Friday (24 April) that it has taken a final investment decision (FID) on Mirny, an onshore wind and battery energy storage system (BESS) project in southeast Kazakhstan’s Zhambyl region.
Mirny would comprise 150 turbines with 1GW generation capacity, paired with a 600MWh BESS. Output (MW) of the battery storage was not disclosed in a release, but the energy company said the equipment will be provided by Saft, the European battery manufacturer and BESS integrator that TotalEnergies acquired in 2016.
TotalEnergies affiliate Total Eren signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Kazakh government in June 2023 to sell energy generated at the plant to the state Financial Settlement Center of Renewable Energy and injected to the national grid.
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At the time of the PPA’s signing, the French company said the project represented an investment of approximately US$1.4 billion. The company said on Friday that the investment is now expected to be about US$1.2 billion, three-quarters of which will be externally financed.
TotalEnergies holds a 60% majority stake in Mirny, with state-owned Kazakh energy holding company Samruk Energy holding 20% and the national oil & gas industry operator for Kazakhstan, KazMunayGas, the remaining 20%.
A financial agreement has been signed with a consortium of lenders that includes the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Société Générale, China Construction Bank, Standard Chartered, and others.
The project comes amid growing interest in large-scale renewable energy and energy storage development in the strategically important Central Asian countries, Kazakhstan and neighbouring Uzbekistan.
In particular, major renewables and conventional power developers headquartered in the Middle East have pursued opportunities in the region, including Abu Dhabi’s government-owned clean energy developer Masdar.
The Mirny project’s onshore wind capacity will be wrapped into the portfolio of a 50:50 joint venture (JV) in Asia between Masdar and TotalEnergies.
The two companies officially announced the US$2.2 billion JV at the beginning of this month. It will be operated from offices in Abu Dhabi and includes 3GW of operational assets and 6GW of advanced development-stage projects, in Central, East and Southeast Asia.
Masdar ratified an agreement for a project of the same size and technology combination with Kazakhstan’s government in May 2025, following an initial investment agreement signed the year before. The Abu Dhabi company also signed an agreement with the government for the development of a 500MW ‘baseload’ renewable energy plant at the ceremony last May.
A TotalEnergies spokesperson said in response to an Energy-Storage.news enquiry that the Masdar project and Mirny are separate projects, although both are being developed in the same region of Kazakhstan.
To date, Total Eren has developed, financed and brought into commercial operation two solar PV farms in Kazakhstan, totalling 128MWp capacity and commissioned in 2019.
News agency Reuters reported on Friday that TotalEnergies’ decision comes despite the company currently being embroiled in legal disputes in the Central Asian country, including a multi-billion dollar environmental fine and a cost dispute over an offshore oilfield in the Caspian Sea, operated in collaboration with other major energy companies.
Downing’s first project in Finland gets BESS upgrade
Globally, while solar-plus-storage is the more commonly seen combination due to the more predictable generation profile of solar PV, projects featuring wind power co-location or hybridisation with battery energy storage systems (BESS) are also emerging.
In Finland, which participates in shared Nordic electricity markets for ancillary services, what is thought to be its first co-located BESS project at a wind plant went into operation in June 2025, through developer Ilmatar and investor Nuveen Infrastructure.
The 330MW/41MWh Ainola BESS participates in the wholesale electricity market and its owners said they were gaining approval for reserve markets at the time of inauguration.
Since then, Swedish developer and independent power producer (IPP) OX2 has announced two BESS projects totalling 235MW/470MWh for co-location with wind farms OX2 is building in Finland, securing a long-term financing package in late February.
Last week (22 April), investment management group Downing said its Downing Energy & Infrastructure team is developing a 20MW BESS at the site of Konttisuo, a 30MW onshore wind project the company acquired in 2022.
Downing said the Energy & Infrastructure team identified a spare grid capacity opportunity at the site.
The wind project in Finland’s Southern Ostrobothnia region was Downing’s first investment in the country, although it has since acquired others, including three hydropower plants. Downing claims to have a 9GW development pipeline spread across the UK, where it is headquartered, and across Europe, spanning multiple technologies.
