Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust (ORIT), building a diversified portfolio of renewable energy assets, including solar, acquired the 68 MW Breach solar ready-to-build project in Cambridgeshire, UK, from AGR Renewables.
The total cost of acquisition and construction of the project is expected to be approximately £50 million (~$61 million).
The acquisition includes the right to construct a battery storage project, which is expected to be ready to build later in 2022, with a 50 MW/100 MWh capacity.
In a separate transaction, the company also agreed to acquire a 50% stake in a 12 MW/24 MWh ready-to-build battery storage project in Bedfordshire, UK, from Gridsource.
The acquisition will be made along with another Octopus-managed fund and is expected to complete by Q3 2022, conditional upon the project site’s lease agreement. The consideration for the acquisition and the company’s share of future construction costs is expected to be approximately £4 million (~$4.8 million).
“We are pleased to announce a number of developments today, including investments into ready-to-build solar PV and battery projects and an update on our construction projects. Our Investment Manager continues to deliver both on asset management and pipeline, actively managing our revenue streams and inflation linkage, allowing us to provide the market with new renewable generation capacity and enabling our shareholders to benefit from a diversified portfolio of impactful investments,” commented Phil Austin, Chairman of Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust.
“Following ORIT’s recent acquisition of a stake in the Lincs offshore wind farm, we are delighted with today’s announcement of additional investments, including opportunities in stand-alone and co-located new-build battery projects. The need for battery storage assets is becoming increasingly important as more solar and wind assets are connected to the grid and will form a key part of the move to a renewables-led power system and achieving net-zero,” says Chris Gaydon, Investment Director at Octopus Renewables.
Last year, Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust agreed to acquire a portfolio of solar PV projects in Ireland from Statkraft for up to €145 million. The portfolio consisted of five sites near Dublin that were expected to have an installed capacity of up to 250 MW.
Recently, Signal Iduna and its financial subsidiary HANSAINVEST Real Assets acquired the 650 MW Witznitz Solar project in Lake Hainer near Leipzig, Germany. The project is subjected to planning approval. Moveon Energy is developing the project and plans to install more than 1.1 million solar modules. It is likely to start the construction works by this quarter and is expected to be completed by Q2 2023.
Large-scale solar project acquisition activity remained strong, with over 23 GW of solar projects acquired in Q1 2022 compared to 13.1 GW in Q4 2021, according to Mercom’s Q1 2022 solar funding and M&A report.
