UK Investors Buy Stake in World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm

Octopus Energy Generation, through a joint venture with GLIL Infrastructure, has agreed to acquire a 12.5 per cent stake in the 1.2 GW Hornsea One offshore wind farm from Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) for a total cash consideration of GBP 400 million (approximately EUR 480 million).

Octopus Energy Generation’s fund management team made a GBP 200 million (about EUR 240 million) investment on behalf of Nest, one of the UK’s largest pension schemes representing a third of the UK workforce.

GLIL Infrastructure, which is also investing GBP 200 million, is a GBP 3.6 billion (approximately EUR 4.3 billion) fund and one of Europe’s largest investors in renewables.

The acquisition is scheduled to be completed by October 2022.

“This latest deal is testament to the growing demand we’re seeing from institutional investors to invest in renewable energy. It’s brilliant to be expanding our relationship with Nest and starting a new one with GLIL to help pension savers’ money make a truly positive impact on people and the planet”, said Alex Brierley, Co-head of Octopus Energy Generation’s fund management team.

Located in the North Sea off the east coast of England, Hornsea One is the world’s largest offshore wind farm to date. Developed by Denmark’s Ørsted, the offshore wind farm became fully operational in January 2020.

The project features 174 Siemens Gamesa 7 MW wind turbines and is generating enough electricity to power over one million homes in the UK.

Hornsea One has in place an inflation-linked Contract-for-Difference (CfD) subsidy with 13 years remaining.

When it comes to Octopus Energy Generation, the company just recently entered the offshore wind market with Hornsea One deal being the firm’s third investment.

Last year, the company, on behalf of Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust (ORIT), invested in Simply Blue Holdings Limited, the parent company of the Simply Blue Group.

In 2022, Octopus Energy Generation made investments in the Lincs wind farm offshore England and the Borssele V offshore wind farm in the Netherlands.

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