Octopus Energy Group has continued to expand its international presence with its first renewable energy deal in Germany.
Octopus Energy Generation’s fund management team is to build a 35MW onshore wind farm in Hessen, near Frankfurt. Construction of the Gaishecke wind farm is to start in the next few weeks, with the asset to be operational by the end of 2023.
Octopus bought the rights for the construction of the wind farm from a consortium of sellers, with the company aiming to “quickly ramp up” its generation portfolio in the country.
It said its fund management team is already scoping out further sites, with goals of operating 1.2GW of wind and solar across Germany by 2030.
This new investment will allow Octopus Energy to launch its Fan Club tariff in Germany in the future. This tariff – which launched in the UK in January 2021 – offers communities living close to wind turbines up to a 50% discount on their energy rates.
The energy supplier announced late last year that it was aiming to raise £4 billion to fund a global expansion of the Fan Club tariff model and support gigawatts of associated renewable energy projects through 2030.
It then later acquired a c.8% stake in a 260MW offshore wind farm in Lincolnshire, which is made up of 75 turbines across 35 square kilometres and is operated by Ørsted.
Zoisa North-Bond, CEO of Octopus Energy Generation, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to expand into renewable generation in Germany as we rapidly scale green power across the continent.
“We’re huge fans of Germany’s wind market and can’t wait to build this wind farm – which will be the first of many – to bring even more cheap green energy to people and help secure energy independence.”
It follows Octopus Energy launching in the German market in November 2020, while a year later it teamed up with Tesla to supply power to German Tesla Powerwall customers.
Over the past year, the company said its German customer base has grown tenfold, recently crossing the 120,000 households threshold.
