The renewable energy business is heating up around the world! Greatcoat Renewables builds a long-term strategic agreement with FuturEnergy Ireland with an expected investment of €1B! Octopus Energy invests in Deep Wind Offshore furthering Octopus’ commitment to invest $20B in offshore wind globally. And, Thailand’s EGCO is expecting big returns from its investment in Apex Clean Energy.
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News Flash September 11
Allen Hall: I’m Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I’m here with the founder and CEO of Intelstor, Phil Totaro, and this is your News Flash. FuturEnergy Ireland, a joint venture between Ireland’s Coillte and ESB, has entered into a long term strategic framework agreement with Greencoat Renewables.
Under this partnership, Greencoat will acquire stakes in FuturEnergy’s onshore wind projects in Ireland as they reach commercial operations with an expected investment of over 1 billion euros by 2030. This collaboration will facilitate the commercialization of renewable energy projects, supporting Ireland’s climate goals and leveraging the country’s renewable electricity support scheme and corporate power purchase agreement market.
Wow. That’s a mouthful. Phil, there’s a lot going on there for a billion euros.
Phil Totaro: Right. And that complements investments that have already been made by Greencoat in Ireland, the UK, continental Europe and elsewhere in both onshore and now they’re starting to dabble in in offshore wind investments as well.
So. They’re, they’re starting to get serious and this just continues to enhance that portfolio.
Allen Hall: Octopus Energy is investing in Deep Wind Offshore to fund its expansion. Deep Wind Offshore, originally founded in Norway, aims to build 10 gigawatts of new offshore wind capacity by 2032, with 2 gigawatts exclusively in South Korea.
The company has grown rapidly since it’s launch in January 2021,
partnering with major energy companies like EDF Renewables and BP. Octopus Energy’s investment will accelerate Deep Wind Offshore’s growth, supporting the development of fixed and floating offshore wind projects, potentially in other markets. Phil, Octopus Energy really going big in offshore wind.
Phil Totaro: Well, and if I can maybe make a quick joke, they’re extending their tentacles even further.
You know, they… They’ve really, I mean, interestingly too, I mean, Octopus invests in obviously onshore wind and solar again in the UK, throughout continental Europe but also they’ve been active in investigating markets like Australia, this new partnership with Deep Wind gives them that foothold in South Korea.
They’ve also been quite active in the past with investments in Simply Blue Group which is developing a lot of floating. Deep Wind is presumably also going to be developing a significant amount of floating capacity in South Korea and other markets, so. This is kind of the, the beginning of, of the, the growth opportunities for, for both Deep Wind Offshore and Octopus Group.
Allen Hall: Electricity Generating Company, a subsidiary of state run Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, anticipates significant revenue from its investment in Apex Clean Energy Holdings. The company’s president expressed optimism about the potential benefits generated by Apex in the coming years, especially since the, in the United States where Apex runs its projects, is one of the world’s largest markets for clean energy.
In 2021, EGCO secured a 17 percent share in Apex, paving the way for a strategic alliance and promising new revenue streams from Apex existing and future projects. Wow. Well, world around companies are connecting in the renewable energy market.
Phil Totaro: It’s a big week for deal announcements. And this one is particularly interesting because you know, EGCO in Thailand has I want to say about 600 to 800 megawatts deployed between their wind and solar installations.
And with a significant pipeline of, you know, continued development there. But their interest in the U. S. market, I believe, is being driven a lot by the Inflation Reduction Act and the, the production tax credits. There is a significant amount of interest in development that is, you know, tax equity financing right now is just exploding.
And so I think that’s one thing that they want to take advantage of. The other thing that was mentioned by one of their executives was that they have the option to maintain their investment in Apex until the end of the concession periods so what that basically does is it gives EGCO the opportunity to dive in and become kind of a majority asset owner once the project development has reached you know, FID and, and construction is, is taking place and they’re, they’re getting ready to, to bring the assets online.
Normally, Apex does not continue to own the assets that they develop. So. This kind of build and sell or build and transfer type of business model is facilitated by a partnership like this where, you know, EGCO can, can actually you know, take some of the projects off Apex’s hands.
Allen Hall: Smart move by both companies.
If you want to learn more about mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships in wind energy, check out our friends at Intelstor at intelstor.com.
