Octopus Energy’s generation arm has launched of a joint venture (JV) with Nexta Capital Partners in Italy’s battery storage market.
The JV with Milan-based Nexta will develop up to 1.5GW of commercial-scale battery storage systems across several projects largely in the south of the country.
Once operational, the projects are estimated to be capable of storing and releasing back into the grid enough electricity to power up to a million homes a day.
The partners are also exploring optimising the battery assets through Octopus’ flexibility platform, Kraken, which currently manages 6GW of green energy assets.
It comes as Octopus plans to invest €1bn in Italy by 2030 as it rapidly scales its activity to help accelerate the country’s green energy transition.
Italy is one of Europe’s fastest growing energy storage markets and recently introduced mechanisms to support this nascent sector.
To meet its decarbonisation goals, it set out the need to build 9GW of new grid-scale energy storage and upped its renewables targets with the aim of having 65% of electricity from green energy by 2030.
This latest investment was made by Octopus Energy Development Partnership (OEDP), a fund managed by Octopus Energy Generation that backs developers creating new green power in Europe, helping to lower energy bills for consumers in future.
The deal builds on OEDP’s existing partnership with Nexta to develop wind and solar farms in Italy.
Zoisa North-Bond, CEO of Octopus Energy Generation, said: “We’re charging up our activity in Italy’s green energy market as we look to unleash more investment in the country.
“Italy is an incredibly interesting and fast-growing market for renewables and there’s significant untapped potential in the energy storage sector.”