On Thursday, two of the world's most powerful energy companies signed a document that said something significant about where they think the future of energy production lies. TotalEnergies, the French integrated energy company, and Masdar, the UAE's clean energy champion, agreed to form a $2.2 billion joint venture to build solar, wind, and battery storage projects in nine Asian countries. The countries range from Japan to Indonesia, from South Korea to Singapore. And, in a somewhat quieter manner, from Azerbaijan.

For a country that has built its current identity and virtually all of its export earnings on oil and gas, the inclusion is not accidental. Rather, it represents the latest in a series of steps that, collectively, begin to outline the contours of a country in transition: from hydrocarbon exporter to clean energy exporter, from pipeline route to green electricity route, from fossil fuel-based economy to...well, to something rather more complicated, and arguably more sustainable.

The joint venture will operate on a 50/50 basis and will be based at Abu Dhabi Global Market. It will function as the sole platform for both firms’ onshore renewable energy activities in the nine markets. The joint venture will have a portfolio of 3 GW of currently operational assets and 6 GW of projects in advanced development stages, which are set to come on line by 2030. It will have 200 personnel from both firms.

Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Chairman of Masdar, framed the deal in explicitly strategic terms: "Asia will be the main driver of global electricity demand growth in this decade," he said at the signing. "The partnership with TotalEnergies will accelerate our development on the continent by opening up new opportunities to provide competitive and reliable energy solutions." Patrick Pouyanné, TotalEnergies' chairman and CEO, described it as a chance to "combine the strengths of our two companies to secure significant positions in these markets and create more value than if we were acting alone."

"Masdar embodies this approach. We are a........

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