The Roads to Carbon Neutral - Season 5 - Episode 8 - Charged for change
The Roads to Carbon Neutral - Season 5 - Episode 8
Charged for Change
The Roads to Carbon Neutral
The fifth season of our program entitled “The Roads to Carbon Neutral”, in partnership with CNBC Catalyst, provides an insight into the solutions and innovations making the transition to low-carbon energy a reality and helping us with our net zero approach, together with society. These powerful on-the-ground stories are led by TotalEnergies’ employees.
In this eighth episode, we head to the United States, where the Company, through its subsidiary Saft, is developing battery energy storage systems to support the growing electricity needs of the U.S. market. William Barr, Director of Manufacturing Operations and Erica Kelly, Engineering Director at Saft, take us on a tour of the production site in Jacksonville, Florida, where battery energy storage systems are built for deployment at several of our U.S. solar farms — including Danish Fields in Texas, our largest solar project in the country.
William Barr, Director of manufacturing operations at Saft
I can't start a day without my coffee. And every time I hit that switch, I think about the energy behind it. Millions of us wake up, cook, and I'll get ready at the same time. So your energy usage across the whole grid is going to start to increase.
And here in Florida, we do have hurricanes. We have a lot of strong winds. And if energy is not stored and balanced, life savings, supports and services could go out. So we work to harvest renewable energy. But the sun, the wind aren't always there when we need them. And that is why stability matters. The grid does not run on nature's schedule.
[CNBC – Charged for change]
[Jacksonville, Floride]
Every day you see more solar farms being installed across the United States, which is great, but most people don't realize that the majority of the energy is produced during the day when the sun is shining and everybody's at work. And when you get home in the evenings for work, that's when the sun is not shining, energy consumption goes up, and that is where energy storage comes in play.
In Jacksonville, we're building energy storage systems that stabilize the grid and helps prevent unexpected power loss.
Erica Kelly, Engineering Director at Saft
All right here we are. So welcome to SAFT, but we have a few visitors here today. SAFT is a technology company with innovation and aviation hospitals, transportation cells and battery design.
We've even powered NASA missions in space. But here our focus is on energy storage systems to harness the power of the sun and the wind for use by communities worldwide.
William Barr
Electricity is cheaper during periods of low demand and this is when our energy storage systems are really doing their best work. It is during these times that ESS is charging and storing their energy for when we have much busier times and is quickly deployed to the grid.
Erica Kelly
One container can power a city block for about four hours and is designed and built for 20 years of reliability. And this is far longer than most of your household appliances, your refrigerator, your cars.
What excites me is seeing how these systems don’t just stay in the factory. They’re already out there. Powering communities, stabilizing grids, work, helping renewables reach their full potential.
Aria Sawicki, project manager, TotalEnergies
SAFT is a wholly owned subsidiary of Total Energies. It's the piece that allows energy to keep flowing even when the sunsets. That's why SAFT is an important part of our integrated power strategy in the US and worldwide. I'm so proud to work on these projects because of the scale and the impact we're able to make on our industrial clients. We help them reduce their emissions.
Erica Kelly
The US energy storage market is set to grow massively by 20-30.
William Barr
Every container that is built here supports local jobs and American manufacturing.
And not only that, our ESS can be used for rapidly growing energy sectors, which are data centers.
Erica Kelly
Energy has always been behind human progress.
William Barr
Coal helped to build our bridges and skyscrapers. Electricity gave us lights, life saving technology.
Erica Kelly
Now energy needs are surging again as more industries electrify. From aerospace and steel to cars, semiconductors and EV charging.
William Barr
Data centers already consume about 1.5% of the global electricity, and that demand is increasing and growing very fast. With storage, we can quickly respond to the rising energy needs. They greatly contribute to the decarbonization of the world.
Erica Kelly
This is why Total Energies and SAFT are scaling fast.
William Barr
The story of energy has always been the story of progress, and this is the next chapter.
[TotalEnergies logo]
Saft: a leader in batteries, with innovative technologies
Saft, a 100% subsidiary of TotalEnergies, specializes in advanced batteries for industry, from design and development to production, customisation and services. For more than a century, the company has been supplying its customers with long-life batteries and systems for critical applications such as safety, emergency power and propulsion. These innovative, safe and reliable technologies deliver high performance on land, at sea, in the air and in space.
Saft powers industry and smart cities, while providing essential back-up functions in remote and hostile environments, from the Arctic Circle to the Sahara Desert.
In this episode, Erica Kelly and Wiliam Barr take us on a tour of the Jacksonville, Florida site where containers of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are produced, forming the heart of energy storage systems (ESS).
A single 5 MWh battery container can supply a city block with electricity for around four hours. The U.S. is a key market for Saft’s ESS division, which also supplies battery storage for TotalEnergies’ renewable projects. TotalEnergies operates three utility-scale solar farms near Houston, Texas—Danish Fields, Myrtle, and Cottonwood—each equipped with 225 MWh of battery energy storage systems provided by Saft.
The United States: a key country for the deployment of battery energy storage
TotalEnergies is one of the top five renewable power developers in the United States. With a presence across the entire electricity value chain, the Company's U.S. portfolio includes 33 GW of renewables projects, including utility-scale solar, onshore wind, flexible generation assets, and battery storage.
The Company is advancing battery-based electricity storage solutions, primarily in Europe and the U.S., where the market is projected to grow significantly — reaching 480 GWh by 2030 — driven largely by demand from industrial customers.
Battery storage systems help balance the intermittent nature of renewable energy by storing excess electricity during periods of high production and releasing it quickly during peak demand.
Saft in the United States in figures:
Saft operates five production sites in the United States, in Cockeysville (Maryland), Valdese (North Carolina), Valdosta (Georgia) and Jacksonville (Florida), as well as the Go-Electric site in Anderson (Indiana). Saft also has a sales office in Lake Success, New York. In total, Saft employs around 900 people in the United States.
Decarbonizing data centers in the United States
In the United States, we have an integrated power portfolio that combines utility-scale capacity in solar, wind, and battery storage with flexible power generation and trading activities. This approach enables TotalEnergies to leverage its deep portfolio of energy solutions, including Clean Firm power, to support our large U.S. commercial and industrial clients.
To meet the growing energy demands of data centers — which consume around 1.5% of global electricity, with 40% located in the U.S. — the Company is developing tailor-made power solutions that also support their decarbonization goals.
Data centers already consume about 1.5% of the global electricity, and that demand is increasing and growing very fast. With storage, we can quickly respond to the rising energy needs. They greatly contribute to the decarbonization of the world. This is why TotalEnergies and Saft are scaling fast.William Barr Director of manufacturing operations
The Roads to Carbon Neutral
