The firm has announced it will acquire an indirect interest of 23% in EREN RE for an amount of €237.5 million and will take over control of EREN RE after a period of 5 years.
Founded in 2012, EREN RE has developed a diversified asset base (notably ) representing a global installed gross capacity of 650 MW in operation or under construction with ambition to achieve a global installed capacity of more than 3 GW within 5 years.
“We welcome to Total Eren into the Total Group!” said Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of Total. “EREN RE’s momentum will allow us to accelerate our growth in solar energy and move us into the wind power market.”
The deal will help total achieve 5GW of installed capacity in 5 years and rebalance its oil and gas portfolio with renewables between the upstream manufacturing with SunPower and the downstream power production with EREN RE.
EREN RE will retain its managerial autonomy but will be renamed Total Eren upon completion of the transaction to allow the Total to enter the wind power generation segment. Development of EREN RE’s solar farm business will be mainly focused on emerging countries where the demand for electricity is growing.
Total has been active in solar energy since 2011 as the majority shareholder in SunPower. In 2017, the Group also set up its own affiliate, Total Solar, in order to develop solar power plants in developed countries and distributed solar systems for industrial and commercial customers (B2B).
The firm also recently acquired GreenFlex, an energy efficiency french firm to accelerate its energy efficiency offering.