Multi-energy in the United States: discovering the Danish Fields solar project

Olivia Topete, Danish Fields Project Manager, TotalEnergies Renewables USA

"I spent the better part of my career in oil and gas and I finally made the jump over to renewables about a year ago.
And I firmly believe that, you know, sustainable energy is the way of the future.
I'm passionate about this. I think that this is something that we absolutely need to do.
And this team that you know has brought Danish Fields together has absolutely created something that is bigger than we could ever imagine."

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Solar energy with Olivia Topete

"Danish Fields is the largest site in the United States that is entirely operated by TotalEnergies.
We cover about 5,000 acres of land.
So it is a very, very large site, takes about 15 minutes just to drive across.
We have 720 megawatts DC-600 AC of PV and 150 megawatts of battery storage.
Danish Fields at peak capacity has the ability to generate electricity for approximately 300,000 homes.
So it is a tremendous sight."

-Morning, Bajali, very good morning.
-How are you doing today?
-Doing well. How's it going?

"There are many benefits to solar energy. First and foremost, it's sustainable and renewable, meaning that it will never run out like our fossil fuels.
As this industry continues to progress, the cost of actually executing, commissioning and then operating a plant like this decrease and it's becoming much more economical.
The maintenance obviously is a lot lower than your traditional types of energy generation plants."

"And then of course the obvious is there are no greenhouse gas emissions generated with solar. So it's a great way to generate energy."

"The panels are monocrystalline by facial.
That means that the solar cell is actually made-up of a single crystal and that allows the electrons that create the flow of electricity to move more freely and that increases the efficiency.
These panels are also bifacial. They can collect sunlight from both sides, increasing the power output.
So what that means is that, you know, during the day when the sunlight is out, we're producing via these solar panels or modules.
But at night when there's no sun and you don't have that generation, you have your battery storage to sort of cover that gap."

-As you know, in our scope, we do the full integration between the battery storage to the inverters and from the inverters to the grid and all this controlled by our systems.
-Looks good!
-OK, great!

"Life in the day of a project manager on a solar farm, it's never the same.
It varies every single day.
I've been in situations where I have to go and find owners for roaming cattle.
So as a chemical engineer, you know, it's a very different life.
This has really been a once in a lifetime opportunity for me.
You know, this is a very male dominated field and here I am as a female chemical engineer over the largest project for total energies in the United States.
So it's definitely a dream come true for me."