A Total gas station. Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
The oil-and-gas giant Total said Thursday it's acquiring an 80% stake in a planned floating wind project off the coast of Wales.
The state of play: Total said the deal with the developer Simply Blue Energy will make it one of the "first movers in this technology in the UK, the world’s largest offshore wind market."
- The France-based multinational giant said it sees lots of potential in floating, as opposed to fixed-bottom, projects because they enable access to sites further offshore with strong winds.
- Terms of the deal around the planned 96-megawatt Erebus project were not disclosed.
Meanwhile, solar company Lightsource BP — which BP half-owns — also said Thursday that it has completed a $250 million financing package for a 260-megawatt project 120 miles northeast of Dallas, Texas.
Why it matters: BP said the deal's structure shows solar's competitiveness and will leverage the company's other capabilities.
- The power from the Lightsource BP project will be traded through a long-term agreement with BP.
- "By ensuring a long-term price for the power BP ensures the project can be financed upfront," a project representative tells Axios.
The big picture: BP's incoming executive VP for low-carbon energy, Dev Sanyal, said in a statement that "power offtake structures widely and historically used for conventional generation are now gaining traction for solar energy projects."
- HSBC Bank USA, National Westminster Bank PLC and Bank of America were all involved in the financing.
Go deeper: Climate activists target Amazon, Google and Microsoft