Octopus Energy makes a splash with investment in one of Europe’s largest wind farms

Octopus Energy’s generation arm announces its investment in one of continental Europe’s largest wind farms, as it continues to turbocharge the energy transition globally.

The 732 MW Borssele III & IV wind farm in the Dutch North Sea is made up of 77 turbines. Its 9.5 MW turbines are the largest in Octopus’ portfolio - each turbine as tall as the Gherkin building in London.

The wind farm has been operational since 2021 and generates enough power every year equivalent to around 825,000 Dutch households.

This latest deal comes as Octopus continues to ramp up its global offshore wind activity. Recently it announced plans to unleash $20bn (£15bn) of investment into offshore wind globally. And just this month it invested in Deep Wind Offshore, a global offshore wind developer with projects in Norway, Sweden and South Korea.

Octopus Energy Generation, one of Europe’s largest renewables and energy transition investors, acquired the 10% stake in this wind farm from the seller Partners Group, a leading global private markets firm acting on behalf of its clients. Octopus acquired the stake on behalf of funds it manages including the Sky fund (ORI SCsp).

Octopus first entered the Netherlands’ renewable energy market last year with the acquisition of the Borssele V offshore wind farm, also part of this Borssele wind farm zone.

The Netherlands is Europe’s third largest offshore wind market after the UK and Germany, and its Government is targeting 70 GW offshore wind capacity by 2050.

Alex Brierley, Co-head of Octopus Energy Generation’s fund management team said: “Investing in one of Europe’s largest wind farms in the Netherlands is a really exciting milestone as we only entered the Dutch renewables market last year. We’ve got big ambitions to supercharge the green energy transition globally. Offshore wind farms like these are boosting energy security and creating a more sustainable energy system for everyone.”

Octopus has green generation projects in 15 countries. It started investing in offshore wind farms last year and since then has acquired stakes in the Lincs offshore wind farm and one of the world’s largest wind farms, Hornsea One in England on behalf of its investors. It also backs floating offshore wind developer Simply Blue.