Renewable energy companies Akuo Energy and Voltalia have begun constructing projects in French overseas territories.
New Caledonia project financed ‘within sometimes-complex political context’
French renewable energy power producer Akuo Energy is set to begin construction of a large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) in New Caledonia.
The 50MW project is being built with 200MWh of batteries to deliver 150MWh of usable capacity, providing 3-hour duration storage under a 12-year contract with the New Caledonian government, via electric grid management company Enercal.
The project is being built in the New Caledonian municipality of Boulouparis, in the South Province of the territory’s main island. Akuo Energy said the system will provide frequency regulation and voltage control ancillary services, and will be equipped with grid-forming advanced inverters that can black start the grid in the event of an outage.
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The French Polynesian Island territory is aiming to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 75% by 2035 and accelerate the decarbonisation of New Caledonia’s nickel mining sector, aiming to replace at least half of all fossil fuel energy used by metallurgical sites with renewables by that time.
The government enlisted independent power producer (IPP) Akuo for the project in August 2023, with the cost cited at around CFP9 billion (US$82 million) investment. It came after the New Caledonia agency for mining and energy invited project proposals a year before.
Akuo Group CEO Bruno Bensasson said the project’s development and financing had been completed “within a sometimes-complex political context” in the Pacific Island territory. New Caledonia saw civil unrest break out in May 2024 over proposed voting reforms, leading to rioting, at least 13 deaths and the declaration of a state of emergency.
Financing was provided through a private-public-partnership (PPP), involving the New Caledonian subsidiary of Paris-based bank Caisse d’Epargne Ile-de-France, French development finance institution L’Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the local Banque Calédonienne d’Investissement (BCI) and French public sector investment bank BPI France.
Local indigenous communities from three tribes representing the Wiwa and Wije people also hold stakes in the project, which is eligible for tax exemptions under both New Caledonian and French mechanisms.
For Akuo Energy, which in 2022 delivered the largest BESS projects to date in Tonga and Martinique, the project continues work in New Caledonia that has seen the power producer already build three solar PV plants on its islands, including a 6MWp facility backed with a 3MW/3MWh BESS.
Voltalia solar-plus-storage project in French Guiana
On the other side of the world, Voltalia has begun site preparation work for a solar-plus-storage project in French Guiana, the overseas department of France on the northeast coast of South America.
Euronext-listed renewable energy power producer Voltalia said the project will pair 43MW of solar PV generation with 43MW/135MWh of battery storage. It will also feature 7MW of biofuel generator backup, to be used “solely in extreme emergency situations to support the grid,” Voltalia said.
It will be built in Sainte-Anne, in the west of French Guiana in a location chosen strategically for its proximity to utility EDF’s substation at Carrefour Margot, from where it will connect to the grid.
Voltalia said site preparation work had begun in June ahead of this week’s official announcement and commissioning is expected to take place in 2028.
The company previously commissioned a 5MW/10.6MWh BESS installation and 5MW solar PV plant in French Guiana in 2023, expanding an existing renewable energy facility’s power generation capacity to 19MW and its storage capacity to 27MWh.
