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Octopus acquires stake in Lincs offshore wind farm

Octopus Energy Generation has made its first investment in a large offshore wind farm in the UK with the acquisition of a roughly 8% stake in the 270MW Lincs array operated by Orsted.

The wind farm, which has been in operation since 2013, consists of 75 turbines spread across a 35-square-kilometre area off the coast of Skegness in Lincolnshire.

A number of companies held shares in the installation prior to the latest investment, with the ownership split between Orsted (25%), the Green Investment Group (44%), Macquarie (15.5%), BAE System Pension Funds (7.75%) and USS (7.75%).

“We’re extremely excited to make our first green waves in offshore wind energy – a key pillar of the UK’s renewable energy mix,” said Zoisa North-Bond, chief executive of Octopus Energy Generation.

She continued: “We’re dipping our toe in the water with this investment – but this is only the beginning. We’ve got big ambitions and innovative ideas for offshore wind and are going to massively ramp up our activities in this area over the coming 12 months.”

The multi-million-pound deals follows Octopus’ acquisition last year of a 24% stake in floating offshore wind developer Simply Blue Group, which is currently has a 9GW pipeline of floating wind projects, including 3GW in the UK and Ireland.

Simply Blue has formed a joint venture with Orsted and Subsea 7 to develop the 200MW Salamander floating wind project off the coast of Peterhead in Scotland.