Published: 3 Mar 2023, 10:04
The 10-year PPA will see the c.67MW Breach solar farm cover 14% of Iceland’s electricity needs for its UK stores. Image: Octopus Investments.
Octopus Energy’s generation arm has signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the UK food retailer, Iceland Foods, to provide 150 of its sites with an estimated 64GWh of solar energy.
The 10-year PPA will see the c.67MW Breach solar farm in Cambridgeshire – which Octopus manages on behalf of Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust (ORIT) – cover 14% of Iceland’s electricity needs for its UK stores.
Octopus Energy acquired Breach solar farm in June 2022 on behalf of ORIT. Construction of the site began last November and the solar farm is scheduled to go live in Q4 2023.
“This partnership is an exciting step in our journey towards achieving net zero by 2040,” said Tarsem Dhaliwal, CEO of Iceland Foods,
“It also gives us some clarity on our energy costs for the coming years – at a significant discount to the current wholesale price. This helps to mitigate the impact of the volatility that has plagued the industry for the past 12 months. Switching to more renewable forms of energy to power our sites will be a huge priority for us in the coming years, as we continue to identify solutions to optimise sustainability across the business.”
Echoing Dhaliwal’s praise, Zoisa North-Bond, CEO of Octopus Energy Generation said: “It’s great to see such a massive British firm like Iceland Foods accelerate its renewable energy journey, freezing its foods with the power of the sun. Iceland has been a trailblazer in sustainability – and the more companies that follow their lead, the quicker we can reduce our economy’s dependence on expensive fossil fuels and shift to a future powered by clean energy.”
Octopus continues to assert its presence in the solar industry; in January 2023 the energy supplier announced that it will now provide domestic solar photovoltaic (PV) installation services.