Exclusive-EDF weighs full sale of US renewable unit to focus on French nuclear

By Forrest Crellin, David French and Andres Gonzalez

PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) -French state-owned utility EDF is considering selling 100% of its U.S. renewable energy business, its CEO said on Wednesday, as the company focuses on building up its domestic nuclear operations and U.S. support for wind and solar has been rolled back. 

Bernard Fontana said the company is considering selling "between 50% and 100%" of its U.S. renewable unit, revising an earlier plan to sell only a minority stake, speaking with Reuters on the sidelines of the Adopt AI conference in Paris. 

A stake of less than 50% was worth about 2 billion euros ($2.32 billion), Bloomberg previously reported.

Fontana, who became CEO in April amid government frustration over delays in upgrading France's nuclear fleet, is prioritising investments to strengthen energy security.

EDF has been looking for ways to raise funds to fund construction of six new nuclear reactors, and has said it was weighing possible asset sales as it contends with a 50 billion euro net debt.

France's nuclear fleet accounts for about 70% of power production in the country and has helped push the nation's power prices below those of neighbours Germany and Britain that rely heavily on gas-fired power plants.

EDF had appointed investment bank Nomura to look for buyers for a stake of up to 49% earlier this year, according to two sources with knowledge of the talks. Nomura declined to comment.

The company previously booked a 900 million euro impairment on its Atlantic Shores offshore wind farm joint venture with Shell off the coast of New Jersey after U.S. President Donald Trump issued a moratorium on new wind development.

EDF's website says the company has developed 23 gigawatts of projects and has 16 gigawatts under service contracts in North America.

Other European companies have divested renewable portfolios in the U.S. recently. Ares Management paid $2.9 billion for a 49% stake in EDPR's 1.6 GW of solar, wind and storage in October.

($1 = 0.8639 euros)

(Reporting by Forrest Crellin in Paris, David French in New York, Andres Gonzalez in London. Additional reporting Isla Binnie. Editing by Anousha Sakoui and Louise Heavens)