TotalEnergies to acquire Canadian renewables, divest Finnish wind farm

By America Hernandez

PARIS - French oil major TotalEnergies has signed agreements with RES, the world's largest independent renewables firm, to acquire nearly one gigawatt's worth of its wind and solar projects in Canada, it said on Wednesday.

That includes the recently commissioned 184 megawatt (MW) Big Sky Solar project in Alberta plus over 800 MW of wind and solar farms under development in the Canadian province.

The move furthers Total's aim of expanding its renewables business to reach 35 GW of gross installed capacity by the end of 2025, up from a current 26 GW, focused in growing liberalised electricity markets where the company can produce but also freely sell and trade the power.

Two-thirds of the power from Big Sky Solar will be sold under long-term contracts, with the remaining electricity sold on the open market. TotalEnergies will also sell carbon credits generated by the site under Alberta's regulated emissions program, according to the statement.

Total added that it had reached financial closing on acquisitions of German renewable developer VSB, which has an 18 GW project pipeline, and SN Power, which holds interests in 791 MW of African hydropower projects.

The French firm has previously said its interest in acquiring African renewables projects stemmed from a desire to offer clean electricity to populations in countries where it is also building large oil and gas projects for export, notably Uganda's $5 billion East African Crude Oil Pipeline.

Total's main interest in VSB was access to future renewables projects in Germany, which it has called a priority market for future growth. The company on Wednesday said it would now move to sell off a VSB-developed wind and solar project in Finland, the 440 MW Puutionsaari.

(Reporting by America Hernandez in Paris and Alban Kacher in Gdansk, Editing by Louise Heavens, Alexandra Hudson)