Octopus Energy’s generation arm makes its latest move into US renewables, with two investments to ramp up new solar power development in North America’s booming green energy market as part of a $2bn investment plan.
Coming three months after the acquisition of solar farms in Ohio and Pennsylvania, the new deal sees Octopus invest in solar farm developer Circal to rapidly scale their expansion alongside UK-based Octopus-backed solar developer Zestec setting up shop in the US to build solar panels on commercial and industrial businesses’ rooftops and land.
Circal, which is developing solar farms in the US and Ireland, has multiple Gigawatts of projects in its pipeline. It is targeting the creation of 600MW of new solar farms in the US in the next five years, with a focus on Texas.
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 from harnessing the power of the sun.
Zestec is targeting sun-drenched Texas as well as the East Coast including Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey to build new solar across hundreds of projects in the next five years.
These latest deals were made on behalf of the Octopus Energy Development Partnership (OEDP) and Sky (ORI SCsp) funds it manages.
It comes as the USA is speeding up the rollout of solar energy, installing a record 40GW of solar in 2023.
Zoisa North-Bond, CEO of Octopus Energy Generation, said, “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.”
