Octopus Energy Generation, a British renewable energy group, has acquired renewables developer Exagen through its Octopus Energy Development Partnership (OEDP) fund.
This acquisition comes after Octopus acquired an initial 24% stake in Exagen through this OEPD fund in August 2022, which includes an option to purchase a 500 MW/1 GWh Battery Project located in the Midlands.
In the past year, Exagen has secured planning consent for 520MW of standalone battery storage projects at sites in Leicestershire and Gloucestershire, according to the company. Additionally, the company has 260 MW of solar and 268 MW of battery storage in planning or is poised to enter planning in the coming year.
Octopus manages nearly £7 billion (~$9.4 billion) in renewable energy projects globally, and this acquisition is expected to further accelerate the U.K.’s progress toward meeting its renewable energy targets by 2035.
“We first invested in Exagen two years ago, and we’ve been impressed by their strong development pipeline of solar and storage projects that will help boost British energy security. By increasing our investment, we’re going to turbocharge the build-out of new green energy and rapidly grow the U.K.’s energy storage capacity,” said Alex Brierley, Co-head of Octopus Energy Generation’s fund management team.
According to Mercom’s 1H and Q2 2024 funding and M&A report for Energy Storage and Smart Grid, In the first half of 2024, there were 14 Energy Storage M&A transactions, up from eight in the first half of 2023.
This September, Return, an energy transition investment and development platform, acquired a majority stake in J&P Batterie Projekte, an energy storage system developer, through a €50 million (~$56 million) investment and commitment. The companies said this partnership will expand Return’s current position in Germany and the European energy storage market in the coming years.
