Octopus Energy’s generation arm had made its first investments in Germany’s solar market, acquiring two projects with a combined capacity of 143MW.
The first acquisition comprises the 122MW Schiebsdorf solar farm from developer Ib Vogt, in Brandenburg, making it the largest in the company’s renewables portfolio in Europe.
The project is under construction, targeting completion later this year.
“With this project we are very proud to further contribute to the energy transition in Germany and to assist Octopus Energy Generation in their efforts to further decarbonise electricity production,” said Anton Milner, CEO of Ib Vogt.
He added: “We would like to congratulate all parties involved and express our appreciation for the successful transaction. There were many challenges to overcome in this project and all parties involved have shown their commitment, perseverance and expertise to bring this project to a successful conclusion.”
ib vogt is providing full engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services as well as future operations and maintenance (O&M) once the project is completed.
Throughout the sales process, Ib Vogt was supported by Ikarus Capital as financial advisor and Watson Farley Williams as legal advisor.
The second is the acquisition of the 20.8MW Hartung Hof solar farm in the vicinity of Saarbrucken in Saarland, which has been operational since March 2023.
The sites were acquired by the Sky (ORI SCsp) fund which is managed by Octopus Energy Generation.
The deals mark the next step in Octopus’ plan to channel more than €1bn of investment into green energy infrastructure in Germany by 2027.
Octopus entered the German renewables sector 18 months ago and has since backed four onshore wind farms and taken a stake in the Butendiek offshore array, with several more projects across solar, onshore wind, offshore wind and storage already in the pipeline.
Octopus Energy Generation chief executive Zoisa North-Bond said: “We have reached a major milestone with these investments – they are not only our first move into solar in Germany, but Schiebsdorf will also become the largest solar farm in our European generation portfolio.”