Octopus Energy enters Italian generation market through partnership with solar and wind farm developer

• Target to create 1.1 GW of green energy in Italy by 2025 to power 1.2m homes
• Investment by Octopus Energy Development Partnership to help reduce gas reliance and lower future energy bills
• Next step in Octopus’ strategy in Italy as it continues to broaden activity

London, Wednesday 19th October 2022 - Octopus Energy Generation enters Italy’s green power market by investing in renewables developer Nexta in a move to help the country wean itself off gas and lower future energy bills.

Octopus Energy Development Partnership (OEDP) is creating a joint venture with Nexta Capital Partners, a Milan-based renewables developer. They’ll create 1.1GW of new onshore wind, solar farms and energy storage in the south of Italy by 2025.

This could power 1.2m homes, avoiding a potential 950,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. That’s the equivalent of removing over 500,000 petrol cars and planting over 4.6m trees.

The recently launched €220 million OEDP invests in early stages of building green power. It is managed by Octopus Energy Generation, Octopus Energy Group’s generation arm.

OEDP is providing funding to Nexta who will secure land, grid connections, planning permission and local community engagement to get renewable projects to the ready-to-build stage. Nexta was founded in 2015, has achieved a leading position in developing renewable energy projects in Italy, and now has a 30 person team.

Italy depends on Russia for around 25% of its imported gas and the Government has made clear its plans to reduce reliance further by building more renewables*. In the past year, regulations have been passed to unblock bottlenecks in permitting renewable projects and speed up green energy deployment in Italy.

Zoisa North-Bond, CEO of Octopus Energy Generation, comments: “Building more new green energy will help reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels and drive down energy bills. Onshore wind and solar are some of the cheapest forms of energy - and Italy can generate it right on their soil. To avoid a repeat of the energy crisis, it’s essential we turbocharge the creation of new renewable energy and shift to a low carbon energy system.”

Fabrizio Caputo, co-founder and Managing Director of Nexta, said: “The partnership with Octopus represents a further step towards the consolidation of our growth objectives within the renewable energy industry. We aim to play a leading role with Octopus in the energy transition process.”

Giorgio Tomassetti, CEO of Octopus Energy Italy, said: “After launching the Octopus Energy brand in Italy this year, we’re really expanding in the country. Making energy cheaper and greener for people in Italy has always been the mission, and rising energy bills have added more urgency to this. Building more green energy will help us get out of this crisis.”

Octopus Energy Generation is one of Europe’s largest renewables investors, managing green energy assets worth £4.4bn. It previously invested in the Italian renewables market in 2017 to build 173 MW of solar farms in Lazio and Sardinia, sold in February 2021. It pioneered investing in unsubsidised renewable energy projects for the first time in Europe.

Re-entering Italy’s green energy generation market marks the latest step in Octopus’ strategy in Italy. It comes as Octopus continues to grow the team locally, including hiring a new dedicated country lead to help rapidly scale renewable projects in Italy.

Octopus Energy Italy launched its energy supplier brand in Italy in June 2022 after acquiring SATO Luce e Gas in November 2021, and offers consumers 100% green energy tariffs.

-ENDS-

Notes to editors:

Sources:

*Reuters

Press Contacts

Octopus Energy Group

Dominic Bellamy

Senior PR Manager

+44 (0)20 4530 8369

dominic.bellamy@octoenergy.com

About Octopus Energy Generation

Octopus Energy Generation is driving the renewable energy agenda and building green power for the future. This means reshaping the market by leading the transition to a cleaner, greener future through renewable projects connected more deeply to customers and businesses.

As one of Europe’s largest investors in renewable energy, its fund management specialist team launched in 2010 with a mission to accelerate the transition to a future powered by renewable energy. This team manages over 3 GW of renewable energy assets like wind and solar farms across 11 countries, worth £4.4bn. These renewable projects generate enough green energy to power 2 million homes every year, and is the equivalent of taking over 1 million petrol cars off the road. The business also launched the Fan Club in the UK 2021, the world's first local energy tariff that provides cheaper, greener energy to customers living near local wind turbines when the wind blows, with a discount of up to 50%. Thousands of people have got in touch asking for the Fan Club in their community.

For more information, check out our website.

About Octopus Energy Group

Octopus Energy Group is a global energy tech pioneer, launched in 2016 to use technology to unlock a customer focused and affordable green energy revolution. It is part of Octopus Group, which is a certified BCorp. With operations in 14 countries, Octopus Energy Group's mission is going global.

Octopus’s domestic energy arm already serves 3.4 million customers with cheaper greener power, through Octopus Energy, M&S Energy, Affect Energy, Ebico, London Power and Co-op Energy. Octopus Electric Vehicles is helping make clean transport cheaper and easier, and Octopus Energy Services is bringing smart products to thousands of homes. Octopus Energy Generation is one of Europe’s largest investors in renewable energy, managing a £4bn portfolio of renewable energy assets throughout the continent.

All of these are made possible by Octopus’s tech arm, Kraken Technologies, which offers a proprietary, in-house platform based on advanced data and machine learning capabilities, Kraken automates much of the energy supply chain to allow outstanding service and efficiency as the world transitions to a decentralised, decarbonised energy system. This technology has been licensed to support over 20 million customer accounts worldwide, through deals with EDF Energy, Good Energy, E.ON energy and Origin Energy.

In December 2021, Octopus Energy Group was valued at approximately $5 billion following a $600 million investment from Generation Investment Management and a $300 million investment from Canada Pensions Plan Investments Board. Both investors back businesses that drive sustainability, promote green energy and tackle climate change. It was the company’s third major investment round since launching to the market.

For more information, check out our website.