Octopus Renewables Trust makes wind farm investments in UK and Germany

Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust (ORIT) has made two wind farm investments in the UK and Germany in separate transactions.

The London-listed firm said it has acquired a further 7.75% ownership interest in the Lincs Offshore Wind Farm in the UK from Macquarie Asset Management’s Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 5 fund.

This follow-on investment adds to the original 7.75% stake in this wind farm that ORIT acquired in May 2022.

Lincs, located off the east coast of England, has been operational since 2013 and has long-term fixed price inflation-linked revenue arising from the UK’s renewables obligation certificate regime. 

Lincs is operated and managed by Danish energy firm Ørsted.

ORIT said its investment comes alongside a co-investment from another fund managed by Octopus Energy Generation, Sky (ORI SCSp), which has acquired a 7.75% indirect stake in Lincs as part of this transaction.

The Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 5 fund has held its minority stake in Lincs since 2017.

Macquarie Green Investment Group Renewable Energy Fund 1 will continue to manage a 44% stake in Lincs following this transaction, Macquarie said.

Martin Bradley, the head of real assets in EMEA for Macquarie Asset Management, said: “The successful delivery and operation of projects like Lincs over the past decade has made the UK a world leader in the offshore wind sector. Investors recognise this, with this transaction a strong vote of confidence in the central role offshore wind will play in enabling the UK to reach net zero.”

In a separate transaction, ORIT said has agreed to acquire the Leeskow Onshore Wind Farm from German developer UKA.

Leeskow, a 34.6MW operational wind farm located in Brandenburg, north-east Germany, consists of seven Nordex N149 turbines.

Leeskow benefits from a government-backed floor price for twenty years under the German EEG regime.

Phil Austin, chairman of Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust, said: “Wind energy is a vital pillar of both the UK and the EU’s energy systems. Today’s investment in the Lincs Offshore Wind Farm takes ORIT’s position in this significant operational offshore wind farm asset to 15.5% and our commitment to Leeskow marks our first investment into German onshore wind.”

Chris Gaydon, investment director at Octopus Energy Generation, said: “These acquisitions of operational assets further increase the diversification in ORIT’s portfolio including adding a new country.

”Both assets add to the proportion of fixed-price power revenues in the portfolio, with the Leeskow acquisition based on power prices well below the cap recently announced by the EU.”

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