Octopus Renewables acquires nine wind farms from RES for €100m

Octopus Renewables has moved into the Irish wind farm market and expanded its French portfolio with the acquisition of assets worth over €100m.

The specialist clean energy investing arm of Octopus Group said it has agreed to buy nine wind farms across France, the UK and Ireland from renewable energy firm RES in two deals.

The wind farms are a mix of operational and construction-ready facilities across England, Wales, Ireland and France, totalling 130MW. Six of the wind farms are in France.

Octopus said RES will continue to handle the construction, asset management and operation and maintenance of the wind farms.

Octopus and RES are also actively exploring the possibility of repowering a number of the sites in France, while also considering the potential to repower other sites across the portfolio, the company said.

The deal represents Octopus’s first entry into the Irish market and Octopus now owns onshore wind assets in England, Wales, Ireland and France.

Alex Brierley, co-head of Octopus Renewables, said: “This is a further stride for Octopus into the European wind market, mirroring our strength in solar. With these assets, we’ve significantly expanded our onshore wind footprint in France, which continues to be highly attractive as a destination for investment in renewable energy.

“Likewise, the favourable support regime in Ireland and the potential for further renewable capacity made it a natural target market for us.”

The acquisitions bring Octopus’s total portfolio of onshore wind in operation and construction to over 470MW across 21 sites.

The latest deal brings the number of transactions between Octopus and RES to five since 2015.

Richard Russell, group commercial director at RES said: “RES is proud to announce the completion of this transaction with Octopus, with whom we have built a solid relationship over the last 5 years, both in the UK and France.

“RES supports over 5.5GW of operational assets across the globe – working with partners such as Octopus who are committed, like us, to a zero-carbon future.”