Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust to develop PV and battery storage assets in UK

Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust announced the creation of a new business to help build new ground-mounted solar photovoltaic and battery storage assets in the UK.

"This latest investment into a new development platform for solar PV and battery storage assets is an exciting addition to ORIT's portfolio," said Phil Austin, chairman of Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust.

"Investing in the early stages of creating new renewable energy projects brings huge growth opportunities for ORIT, both from value creation through successfully delivering projects, and from the exclusive opportunity to invest into the construction of the sites once they are ready to build."

Octopus pledged up to £2m of investments and said that BLC Energy Lmtd. would help develop the assets.

The initial investment from ORIT would be £0.7m with up to another £1.3m foreseen until the end of 2025.

To begin with, its new venture would target a pipeline of more than 350MW of projects in development so that once land rights and grid connections offers had been secured the projects would be ready either for a sale or additional development.

ORIT would also have the exclusive rights to to provide more financing so that the initial pipeline reached ready-to-build status between 2025-29.

It would also have the option to build or sell the projects developed by BLCe once ready-to-build.