Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust PLC (LSE:ORIT) said it has fixed pricing for much of its energy output for the coming two years, as well as grabbing two ‘ready to build’ acquisitions - a solar farm in Cambridgeshire and a 50% stake in a battery storage project in Bedfordshire.
A statement from the trust also revealed that following the power price increases in recent months, the investment manager has fixed pricing on a significant portion of the existing portfolio's short-term output. As a result, roughly 62% of revenues forecast to be received by the company's current portfolio of assets in the two years ending 31 March 2024 are now fixed.
The acquisition of Breach Solar Farm, a c.68MW ready-to-build solar PV project in Cambridgeshire and the construction of a solar PV project is expected to be about £50mln. The deal allows Octopus to construct a battery storage project which is expected to be ready-to-build later in 2022, with a capacity of 50MW/100MWh.
The 50% stake in the 12MW/24MWh ready-to-build battery storage project in Bedfordshire is expected to complete by Q3 and is flagged to cost about £4mln, including future construction costs.
The need for battery storage assets is becoming increasingly important as more solar and wind assets are connected to the grid and will form a key part of the move to a renewables-led power system and achieving net zero," said Chris Gaydon, investment director at the trust’s investment manager Octopus Renewables, which is part of the Octopus Group.
The trust also provided an update on some of its existing projects, saying it has completed its purchase of a 7.75% stake in the operational 270MW Lincs offshore wind farm off the east coast of England, which is managed by Ørsted.
Construction updates on onshore wind farms included seven of eight turbines installed at the 24MW Cerisou project in France ahead of expected commissioning in the third quarter; Kuslin, a 39.6MW project in western Poland is to be fully up and running in the coming weeks; while at Cumberhead site in Scotland, turbine installations are expected to begin in early autumn ahead of expected electricity generation before the end of the year and full commercial operations in early 2023.