Portugal's EDP agrees to buy UK onshore wind and solar portfolio

By Nina Chestney

LONDON (Reuters) - Power company Energias de Portugal has agreed to buy a 544 megawatt (MW) onshore wind and solar portfolio in Britain through its subsidiary EDP Renovaveis, the Portuguese firm said on Wednesday.

The deal was done through two separate agreements with renewables developers Vento Ludens and Wind2 for a total amount of up to 71 million pounds ($97 million), it said.

The portfolio consists of a 5 MW operating wind farm, 192 MW of wind projects in an advanced stage of development which will participate in the upcoming UK contracts-for-difference (CfD) auctions and 347 MW of wind and solar projects under development.

Under the CfD scheme, the UK government guarantees qualifying projects a minimum price at which they can sell electricity, with renewable power generators bidding for CfD contracts in a round of auctions.

The British government has said that from 2021 onwards both onshore wind and solar will be able to participate in the CfD rounds, which are expected to occur every two years until 2030, EDP said.

"This transaction allows EDPR to establish its presence in the UK onshore market with a sizeable and technologically diversified portfolio at different stages of development," the company added in a statement.

EDPR has 1 gigawatt of offshore wind capacity under construction and 0.9 GW under development in Britain.

($1 = 0.7338 pounds)

(Reporting by Nina Chestney;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)