Octopus Renewables invests £2.5m in new wind farm development firms

Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust has invested £2.5m and agreed to provide up to a further £7.5m in development funding for nine newly-formed joint venture onshore wind farm development companies, it announced on Wednesday, with specialist UK onshore wind developer Wind 2.

The London-listed infrastructure investment trust said the joint ventures would initially target the development over the next five to 10 years of up to nine onshore wind farms in Scotland and Wales, with a potential combined capacity of around 570MW.

It said its investment, which was a co-investment alongside another fund managed by Octopus Renewables, gave the trust and the Octopus Managed Fund preferential rights to fund the construction of the projects reaching ready to build stage.

“I am pleased to announce this partnership with Wind 2 to develop a significant amount of onshore wind farm capacity in the UK,” said chairman Phil Austin.

“This is an exciting move for ORIT which provides an opportunity to leverage the significant onshore wind development experience of the Wind 2 team and potentially generate a significant ready to build pipeline in the years to come.”

At 1335 GMT, shares in Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust were up 1.29% at 110.2p.