UPDATE 1-Finavera sells stake in Irish wind farm, stock up

* Frees up cash for development of Canadian projects

* Finavera will keep 10 pct stake in Cloosh Valley project

VANCOUVER, British Columbia Aug 25 (Reuters) - Canada's Finavera Renewables Inc (FVR.V) said on Wednesday it is selling a majority stake in a wind-power project it is developing in Ireland, news that lifted its stock 15 percent.

The 8.3 million euros ($10.5 million) from the planned sale gives Finavera more financial muscle to complete pre-construction work on four wind-power projects it is developing in British Columbia, NCP Northland Capital Partners analyst Tania Maciver said.

"This is another positive news release from Finavera," she said.

The tiny Vancouver-based wind energy developer surprised the industry in March when it won about 20 percent of the long-term clean-power purchase contracts put on offer by the West Coast Canadian province of British Columbia.

Finavera is looking for a partner to help it fund the development of the four projects, which will have a capacity of 300 megawatts and are expected to cost C$800 million ($754.8 million) to build.

Finavera said it has signed an agreement to sell SSE Renewables a majority stake in Finavera's 105-megawatt Cloosh Valley Wind Project in County Galway in Ireland.

It has also signed a co-development agreement with SSE and Coillte, the Irish state-owned forestry and renewables company, to jointly develop the project.

Finavera will keep a 10 percent stake in the project, which should provide enough electricity to power about 68,000 homes.

Finavera's stock rose as much as 1 Canadian cent, or 15 percent, to 7.5 Canadian cents on the TSX Venture Exchange on Wednesday. It later retraced its gains to end down 0.5 Canadian cents at 6 Canadian cents.

($1=$1.06 Canadian; 0.787 euros) (Reporting by Nicole Mordant; editing by Peter Galloway)