Octopus Energy funds have taken a 40% stake in Simply Blue, a joint venture partner in an experimental floating wind farm off the coast of Aberdeenshire.
The renewable energy firm’s impact fund, Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust (LON: ORIT), upped its share in Ireland’s Simply Blue Group to 20%, while another fund managed by the group, Sky, took a further 20%. This represented investment worth €14million (£11.8m)
Simply Blue is a partner in Salamander, a 100MW floating offshore wind scheme 22miles off the coast of Peterhead.
Simply Blue floating wind joint ventures
The wind farm joint venture, which includes Ørsted and Subsea7, signed up to the Crown Estate Scotland’s Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing round in May last year.
© Supplied by Big PartnershipCork-based Simply Blue is also partners with Total Energies in Blue Gem Wind, which plans to develop the 100MW floating Erebus Project in the Celtic Sea. Another Celtic Sea project is the 1.3W Emerald floating wind project with EDF. Simply Blue also has floating wind demos planned for waters around Northern Ireland and Italy.
In an update to the stock market, ORIT said it has invested €7m into Simply Blue’s current funding round after making a first investment in 2021.
Another fund managed by Octopus Energy Generation, Sky, is also investing €7m and will also own 20% of Simply Blue.
ORIT said the new funding was structured as a convertible loan and is intended to enable Simply Blue to continue developing its pipeline of offshore wind and sustainable fuels projects and bring them to construction-ready stage.
Hydrogen for Kleenex
The fund also highlighted some further projects it is backing.
Hyro Energy, a joint venture between ORIT, Sky and Renewable Energy Systems (RES) “continues to make good progress”, the firm said. Hyro is developing Northfleet, a hydrogen production scheme for Kleenex and Andrex maker Kimberly-Clark’s manufacturing facility in Gravesend, Kent.
This is expected to achieve “ready-to-build status” in 2025.
It has also entered two projects into the UK Government’s second hydrogen allocation support round (HAR2), with outcomes expected in Autumn 2024.
Octopus Energy Generation is the investment manager of ORIT, a closed-ended investment company.
Entrepreneur Greg Jackson founded Octopus Energy in 2015 and has more than 7.2m customers.
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