Octopus Energy’s generation arm is expanding its green energy push in France, striking four deals in solar and wind energy.
France is Octopus’ largest clean generation market in continental Europe – and these deals mark the step in Octopus’ €1bn investment plans for France’s renewables market.
To speed up solar, Octopus expanded FFNEV – a renewables developer it backs in Spain, Portugal, and Romania – into France, on behalf of the Octopus Energy Development Partnership (OEDP).
FFNEV France aims to deliver 500MW of new solar farms by 2030 primarily focused on agrivoltaics, alongside 100MW of energy storage by 2030.
This is across regions such as Grand Est, Nord, Pays de la Loire, Nouvelle Aquitaine, and Occitanie, and will be enough to power around 110,000 homes.
In addition, Octopus acquired two newly-operational solar farms from the renewable energy company BayWa r.e. with a combined capacity of 80MW in the Indre region in central France and in Charente Maritime in the south-west, on behalf of the Sky Fund (ORI SCSp).
The two 40MW solar farms are on former military bases, have been designed for sheep farming.
These solar deals follow Octopus’ acquisition of agrivoltaics developer OX2 France earlier this year.
To ramp up wind energy, Octopus acquired the Vallee 1 wind farm in the Aisne region from Enertrag.
The 35MW wind farm is due to go live at the end of the year.
Octopus also acquired the Terrier de la Pointe 20MW wind farm from Q Energy, located in Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
Both wind farms were acquired on behalf of the Sky fund (ORI SCSp).
Zoisa North-Bond, CEO of Octopus Energy Generation, said: “France has incredible potential to become a renewable energy powerhouse. We’re always looking at how we can create a cleaner and cheaper energy system for everyone.
“With these latest investments, we’re scaling cutting-edge agri-solar to wind farms delivering home-grown clean power to power 150,000 homes.”
