Octopus Energy’s generation arm has inked a new partnership with Iceland Foods, the UK’s leading frozen food retailer.
The 10-year deal will see green power supplied to Iceland from the Breach solar farm in Cambridgeshire, which Octopus manages on behalf of Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust (ORIT).
The solar farm will provide c.64 Gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable energy every year to power 150 sites, which will cover 14% of Iceland Foods’ electricity needs for its UK stores.
Iceland has nearly 1,000 stores in the UK. This deal with Octopus will reduce Iceland Foods’ emissions by 23,000 tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of removing over 12,000 petrol cars from the roads, or planting over 110,000 trees every year.
Octopus Energy Generation acquired the c.67 MW Breach solar farm in June 2022 on behalf of ORIT. The solar farm construction began in November 2022 and is scheduled to become operational in Q4 2023.
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.”
Tarsem Dhaliwal, CEO of Iceland Foods, said: “This partnership is an exciting step in our journey towards achieving net zero by 2040. 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.”
Octopus Energy Generation is one of Europe’s largest renewables investors. Its fund management team looks after nearly £6bn of green energy sites – and the team has signed various PPAs for the green energy sites it manages. This included a deal to send onshore wind power from Scotland to Kimberly Clark’s manufacturing and distribution facilities.
This is the latest way Octopus Energy is helping businesses harness cheaper renewable power. Octopus’ business energy division recently launched the ‘Max Power’ tariff which enables multi-site businesses with renewable generation on one site to share this energy with their other locations, and lower their bills as a result.
