Canada's Enbridge to replace Dong as EDF offshore wind partner

PARIS, May 10 (Reuters) - French utility EDF EDF.PA
announced a deal on Tuesday to build three offshore wind parks
in France with Canada's Enbridge ENB.TO , which will replace
EDF's original consortium partner Dong Energy of Denmark.
EDF said in a statement that Enbridge would acquire a 50
percent stake in Eolien Maritime France (EMF), the company
controlling the three future offshore wind farms with combined
capacity of 1,400 megawatts (MW).
EDF renewables unit EDF Energies Nouvelles and Enbridge will
jointly own EMF.
Enbridge, Canada's largest oil pipeline company, said in a
separate statement it would pay C$282 million ($218 million)
including transaction costs for the stake and that it would
potentially invest up to C$4.5 billion (3.05 billion euros) in
total for all three projects.
If the projects go ahead, construction would start from 2017
and continue through 2022, it added.
EDF renewables chief Antoine Cahuzac told reporters that
Dong had wanted to take control of one of the parks. Since EDF
wanted to keep control, it had put up Dong's share for sale.
Dong said its exit was consistent with its business model.
"When entering into offshore wind projects, we prefer to be
in the lead of development, construction and operation. That was
not the case in this joint venture, " a spokesman said, adding
that Dong still considered France an attractive market for
offshore wind.
EDF, then allied with Dong, won the first French offshore
tender for three fields on the French west coast - Fecamp,
Courseulles-sur-mer and Saint-Nazaire - in 2012. They will use 6
megawatt turbines made by Alstom ALSO.PA , whose energy unit
has since been taken over by General Electric (NYSE:GE) GE.N .
The first turbines are expected to be put into service
around 2020-2021.
EDF EN and Enbridge have been partners since 2012 in Canada,
where they jointly operate four wind farms with combined
capacity of 830 MW.
The offshore projects are part of EDF's strategy to nearly
double its renewables capacity to more than 50 gigawatts (GW) by
2030 from 28 GW today.
Enbridge said it had interests in renewable energy
facilities with net capacity of nearly 2 GW. The pipeline
company says its investment in renewables will help stabilize
its environmental footprint at January 2009 levels.
($1 = 1.2958 Canadian dollars)
(1 euro = 1.4747 Canadian dollars)