Octopus stretches tentacles to grab Vestas-equipped Dutch offshore wind innovation site
Clean energy investor acquires 19MW Borssele 5 site from consortium including Van Oord
Octopus Energy’s generation arm via its fund management team has acquired the 19MW Borssele 5 offshore wind innovation site from a consortium of sellers including contractor Van Oord.
The purchase marks UK-based Octopus’s debut in the Dutch market, weeks after entering Germany.
Borssele 5 has been operational since last year, featuring two Vestas 9.5MW turbines, and some world-first offshore wind innovations, including a method for securing turbine foundations as well as technologies to promote more marine biodiversity around turbines.
“We’re expanding green power across Europe and over the next decade we see ourselves rapidly accelerating our investments in renewables,” said Zoisa North-Bond, chief executive of Octopus Energy Generation.
“The Netherlands is on the path out of fossil fuels and we’re here to help on this mission. We started making a splash in offshore wind this year, and we’ve already got a lot more in the pipeline.”
Octopus fund management team in April bought a stake in the 270MW Lincs offshore wind farm off the east coast of England on behalf of Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust (ORIT).
Borssele 5 is operated by Mitsubishi-owned Dutch utility Eneco, and has local energy company Vandebron as offtaker, supplying green power to some 25,000 homes a year. The site is located within the 1.5GW Borssele 1-4 offshore wind complex in the North Sea.
Octopus Energy Generation manages 3GW of renewable assets across Europe, a capacity it plans to boost to 18GW by 2027.
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