Suncor Energy Inc. announced a near-full exit from its Canadian wind and solar business Wednesday as Canadian Utilities Ltd. stepped up to buy the assets for $730 million.

“Divesting of these wind and solar assets further streamlines our portfolio so that we can concentrate our efforts on our core business,” Kris Smith, Suncor’s interim president and chief executive officer, said in a release.

The deal covers all of Suncor’s wind and solar assets in Canada other than the SunBridge wind facility in Saskatchewan that was decommissioned in August, a spokesperson told BNN Bloomberg via email.

Canadian Utilities said the portfolio of assets it’s acquiring are located in Ontario and Alberta, and have an operating capacity of 252 megawatts, plus more than 1,500 megawatts of projects that are in development.  

"Through this investment, we instantly add a new wind power position to our growing renewables portfolio, we bring additional high-quality wind and solar development opportunities into our growth pipeline, and we expand our renewables driven earnings base,” Bob Myles, the executive vice-president of corporate development at ATCO Ltd. and Canadian Utilities, said in the release.

The two companies said their transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023.