Renewables

Developing and investing in a range of solar, battery storage and wind solutions to support the energy transition.

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We have an expanding portfolio of renewable generation investments in the Americas, Asia and Europe

Renewables play an increasingly important role in the energy mix. They have reached an efficiency and scale where they can be used commercially, both in localised and large-scale grid projects.

Over time, our growing portfolio of projects will be well placed to meet the needs of the energy transition.

1.1GW

Solar and wind generation

300MW

Battery storage

We develop renewable projects from greenfield to ready-to-build solar, wind and battery storage. Through these projects we provide reliable power to our commercial and industrial clients and utilities.

We use our trading expertise to offer bespoke proprietary hedging structures that only Vitol is able to offer like the Revenue Guarantee Agreement, or RGA, a trading instrument that guarantees a project receives a fixed amount of revenue per month, whether the wind blows or the sun shines and eliminates the basis risk for the project.

Invested in:

- Solar & battery storage
- Wind
- Key renewable technology

“We’re investing because we strongly believe that battery storage is a key part of the renewables solution.”

Andrew De Pass

Head of renewables and sustainable investments, Americas

Interview with Andrew De Pass, head of renewables and sustainable investments, Americas

What do you enjoy about being involved in Renewables?

Climate change is real, I enjoy being actively part of the solution, and not only that, but at an oil and gas company. Facilitating change from within the energy ecosystem and taking a considered and holistic approach is where my work can have significant impact.

What is the role of Renewables in the energy space? And, what is Vitol’s role in that market?

Renewables, that’s wind, solar and battery storage, generate power which reduces emissions and greens up power generation away from coal. And in time from other thermal power sources.

Vitol’s role is as a developer of renewable projects from greenfield through to ready-to-build solar, wind and battery. We prefer to build and own so that we can use our network to contract the power for commercial and industrial customers as well as utilities and work with our trading arm to optimise our investments.

How will the Renewables market evolve in the context of the energy transition?

Renewables, while green are not perfect – one challenge is intermittency – you only generate power when the sun shines or the wind blows and that’s not always when you need the power. That’s why solar renewables are evolving to include storage solutions like battery to even up the load.

Any exciting nearish term developments?

We’re very pleased to have recently acquired a large standalone battery project in New England which we’ll be building, owning and operating through our wholly-owned company, VC Renewables.

We’re investing because we strongly believe that battery storage is a key part of the renewables solution.

Ocotillo Wells Case Study

Cutting 65ktCO2e emissions a year, Vitol constructed and operates the Ocotillo Wells Solar PV park in San Diego County, California

The facility has a capacity of 50MWAC, and includes a 4-hour battery storage system and is part of Vitol’s growing sustainable energy solutions, to enable companies across the US to source renewable energy to power their businesses.

Ocotillo Wells provides economic benefits to the local community in addition to the jobs created during construction and operations. And offtake agreements with large corporates (e.g. Meta) and California Community Choice Aggregators (e.g. Ava Community Energy) ensure the long term viability of the project.

FlexGen Case Study

Technology will underpin the rollout of renewables globally to address intermittency and ensure customers have stable and reliable power

That's why Vitol is an anchor investor in FlexGen, a leading integration services and software technology provider for energy storage solutions globally. FlexGen’s energy management software platform, HybridOS, allows energy storage owners to deploy various market strategies and combine storage solutions with any form of power generation.

The integration of energy storage requires software and technological solutions that will play a critical role in the adoption of renewables at scale.

Vortex Case Study

Vitol acquired Vortex Energy in January 2023

A pioneer in the renewables sector in Poland, the company is driven by a diverse team of experts offering a full suite of services through the lifecycle of the asset. This includes developing greenfield wind and solar projects through to providing construction and operational management services.

At the beginning of 2024 Vortex commenced construction of a portfolio of projects, including 53 MW of onshore wind and 57 MW of PV solar with a total equity commitment of approximately $123m.

The completed PV and wind projects will provide around 180 GWh of energy annually, covering the needs of 93,000 households and cutting around 126,000 tons of CO2 emissions from fossil fuels each year.