TotalEnergies SE signed a joint venture agreement with Vanguard Renewables, a portfolio company of a fund managed by BlackRock’s Diversified Infrastructure business, targeting Farm Powered renewable natural gas (RNG) project development in the United States.

A joint press release said TotalEnergies’ team-up with the major player in farm-based organics-to-renewable natural gas production to build and operate 10 RNG projects with a total annual RNG capacity of 0.8 terawatt hours (TWh) or 2.5 billion cubic feet over the next 12 months.

The three initial projects in this agreement are currently under construction in Wisconsin and Virginia, each with a unit capacity of nearly 75 gigawatt hours (0.25 Bcf) of RNG per year, the announcement said.

Beyond these first 10 projects, the partners will consider investing together in a potential pipeline of about 60 projects across the country for a total capacity of 5 TWh (15 Bcf) per year, the JV partners said.

"TotalEnergies is pleased to partner with BlackRock and its portfolio company Vanguard Renewables, to accelerate the development of food biowaste processing into renewable natural gas in the United States. By expanding into this fast-growing market, our joint venture will create value for both companies while benefiting the food and farming sectors as well as providing a ready-to-use solution to industrial companies willing to decarbonize their energy supply. This joint venture is a new step for TotalEnergies in achieving its objective to produce 10 TWh of renewable natural gas by 2030”, Olivier Guerrini, Vice President for Biogas at TotalEnergies, said.

The first 10 projects are based on a model of waste materials recovery from the food and beverage industries, supplemented with dairy manure from dairy farms. The anaerobic digesters will be built on the dairy farms themselves, which will then recover and manage the digestate (a byproduct of the anaerobic digestion process) as a low-carbon and nutrient-dense fertilizer, the partners said.

Vanguard, acquired by BlackRock in July 2022, currently operates 17 organics-to-renewable energy facilities with an annual capacity of more than 440 GWh (1.5 Bcf) of RNG. Looking beyond 2024, Vanguard Renewables plans to commission over 100 RNG projects by the end of 2028, according to the media release.

“This collaboration validates Vanguard’s leadership position in the RNG space in the U.S. and brings together our expertise with TotalEnergies’ extensive experience in large-scale energy development, safety procedures, and global partnerships. These 10 RNG projects, jointly undertaken by TotalEnergies and Vanguard Renewables as co-investment partners, further reinforce our commitment and ability to deliver on our mission of harnessing the power of waste to decarbonize our planet”, Neil H. Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Vanguard Renewables, said.

Vanguard Renewables will contribute its large-scale ready-to-build projects to the JV and oversee feedstock supply, asset management, operations, and RNG sales.

TotalEnergies will provide industrial expertise to the JV. This includes technical support for facility design, engineering, and operational performance.

Together, TotalEnergies and Vanguard Renewables will market RNG through long-term agreements with buyers committed to decarbonizing their industrial processes, the two companies said.