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Total to acquire 51% stake in SSE $3.7 billion UK wind farm project

Logo of Total company on a gas station in Montreuil

PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) - French oil major Total <TOTF.PA> said on Wednesday it will acquire a 51% stake in SSE's <SSE.L> Seagreen 1 British offshore wind farm project, adding it represented a global investment of around 3.7 billion dollars.

Oil companies like Total have been ramping up investment in renewable projects in a bid to reduce their reliance on fossil fuel products and increase their exposure to low-carbon investments.

The Seagreen 1 project is located 27 kilometres from the coastline in Scottish waters of UK North Sea.

Once complete in 2022-23 the wind farm is expected to have capacity of 1,075 megawatts of electricity, enough to power around 1 million homes.

The project secured a 15-year guaranteed minimum price of almost 42 pounds per megawatt hour for around 40% of the electricity it will produce at last year's British renewable subsidy auction.

Total said in a statement it will pay an upfront payment at closing of 70 million pounds and earn-outs up to 60 million pounds in aggregate, subject to performance conditions.

In a separate statement, British utility SSE said it signed a contract with turbine manufacturer MHI Vestas Offshore Wind to provide the blades for the project, which would be manufactured at its site in the Isle of Wight.

MHI Vestas is a venture between Denmark’s Vestas Wind Systems A/S <VWS.CO> and Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries <7011.T.>

(Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten in Paris and Susanna Twidale in London, Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Ed Osmond)