Octopus Energy’s generation arm has made two investments in the US solar market, with the company backing developers Circal and Zestec in the creation of new projects.
The company said it marks the next move in its $2bn plan to power up America’s renewables revolution and comes just three months after it made its first-ever green energy investments stateside with the acquisition of solar farms in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The new deal sees Octopus invest in solar farm developer Circal to rapidly scale up its expansion.
The outfit, which is developing solar farms in the US and Ireland, has multiple gigawatts of projects in its pipeline and is targeting the creation of 600MW of new PV arrays in the US in the next five years, with a focus on Texas.
This would be enough green power for 40,000 Texan homes.
UK-based Octopus-backed solar developer Zestec is now also setting up shop in the US to build solar panels on commercial and industrial businesses’ rooftops and land.
Businesses like warehouses and logistics centres will be able to get solar panels installed by Zestec at no cost, allowing them to benefit from fixed prices and savings.
Zestec is targeting Texas as well as east coast states including Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey to build new solar across hundreds of projects in the next five years.
The latest deals were made on behalf of the Octopus Energy Development Partnership and Sky funds it manages.
Octopus Energy Generation chief executive Zoisa North-Bond: “The US continues to break its records with the amount of clean, cheap, solar power it is building.
“We entered America’s renewables market just three months ago and have big ambitions to build even more green power.
“With these latest deals we’re helping power up the clean energy revolution across the USA to create a cheaper and greener future.”