Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust plc (LON:ORIT) has provided an update on the Company’s construction and development activities.
Breach Solar Farm
The 67 MW Breach solar farm in Cambridgeshire, UK, is now undergoing the final stages of its commissioning process. It has started exporting some electricity to the grid and expects to reach full export generation capacity in June. The asset has a 10-year power purchase agreement with Iceland Foods Limited, which will offtake 100% of the production from the site at a fixed price linked to UK inflation (CPI).
Ballymacarney Solar Farm Extension
In February 2024, Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust acquired a 199MW complex of four newly constructed solar farms close to Dublin, Ireland. A nearby 42 MW fifth site called Harlockstown has now reached mechanical completion. Under existing agreements, ORIT will acquire this project from Statkraft Ireland once it passes the set of required performance and handover tests, which is expected in Q3 2024. Like the first four sites, Microsoft will also be the off-taker for production from the Harlockstown extension.
Simply Blue
Simply Blue Group is a renewable energy developer, headquartered in Ireland, focused on developing floating offshore wind projects and complementary technologies such as sustainable fuels. ORIT first invested in Simply Blue Group in August 2021 and has now agreed to invest €7m into its current funding round. Following this investment, Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust will own c.20% of Simply Blue Group. The new funding is structured as a convertible loan and is intended to enable Simply Blue Group to continue developing its large pipeline of offshore wind and sustainable fuels projects whilst it seeks to raise long-term strategic funding to bring these projects through to the construction-ready stage. The investment is being made alongside another fund managed by Octopus Energy Generation, Sky (ORI SCSp) (“Sky”) which is also investing €7m and will also own 20% of Simply Blue.
HYRO
HYRO Energy Limited, the joint venture between ORIT, Sky and Renewable Energy Systems established to develop green hydrogen production projects for industrial offtake/consumption, continues to make good progress. HYRO is currently progressing with the Northfleet hydrogen production project, which is expected to reach ready-to-build status in 2025, and it has also entered two projects into the UK Government’s second hydrogen allocation support round, with outcomes expected in Autumn 2024. This follows the success of the Northfleet project in December 2023 in the first round (HAR1).
