Octopus buys British solar and battery storage firm Exagen

By Nina Chestney

LONDON (Reuters) - Octopus Energy Generation has acquired solar and battery storage developer Exagen Group to expand its renewable energy pipeline.

Exagen, which develops utility-scale renewable energy and storage projects, said on Tuesday it has generation capacity of more than 2.4 gigawatts in development in England.

The acquisition of 100% of Exagen comes after Octopus took an initial 24% stake in the company in August 2022.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Exagen said it has gained planning consent for 520 megawatts (MW) of battery storage projects in England over the past year. It also has 260 MW of solar and 268 MW of battery storage either in the planning stage or about to enter it in the year ahead.

Octopus said it manages nearly 7 billion pounds ($9.4 billion) of renewable energy projects worldwide and the Exagen acquisition will help it contribute to Britain's low-carbon energy transition

"By increasing our investment, we're going to turbocharge the build-out of new green energy and rapidly grow the UK's energy storage capacity," said Alex Brierley, co-head of Octopus Energy Generation's fund management team.

Britain aims to have 95% of its electricity from low-carbon sources by 2030, which will also require an increase in energy storage to help balance supply and demand on the system.

($1 = 0.7483 pounds)

(Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Alexander Smith)