Simply Blue Group has welcomed further financial backing of 25 million euros from funds managed by
Octopus Energy’s generation arm. An additional 2.5 million euros has been raised from other investors, bringing the total investment to 27.5 million euros.
Headquartered in Cork, Simply Blue Group is an Irish ‘blue economy project developer’ that is undertaking ‘pioneering projects’ in floating offshore wind, e-fuels, wave energy, and low-impact aquaculture. The group currently has a global pipeline of over 10GW of floating offshore wind projects, and this investment will support Simply Blue Group’s floating offshore wind projects and blue economy projects — such as the development of e-Fuels and energy parks.
This is the second round of funding from Octopus into Simply Blue Group, having announced a 15 million euro investment in August 2021 that was made by Octopus on behalf of Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust (ORIT) and the Sky fund (ORI SCSp). Octopus manages over 3GW of renewable energy assets like wind and solar farms worth £5 billion and spanning 11 countries.
Sam Roch-Perks, Simply Blue Group’s CEO, said: “We welcome the reinvestment by Octopus Energy Generation, which demonstrates the company’s support to Simply Blue Group and the renewables sector. With our strong pipeline of global projects, this investment will enable us to grow our pipeline even further and move forward with a range of international projects outside of floating offshore wind.”
Chris Gaydon, Octopus Energy Generation’s investment director, said: “The floating offshore wind sector will undoubtedly play a vital role in the clean energy system of the future. Just over a year after we first invested in Simply Blue, their development pipeline of floating offshore wind projects has grown significantly. Given falling costs, improving technology, and growing investment, this area is going from strength-to-strength.”