Octopus Energy’s generation arm and Legal & General Capital are investing £70m in the Kensa Group, a manufacturer and installer of ground source heat pumps.

This will be the biggest investment ever made in ground source tech in Britain and will allow Kensa to rapidly expand and install 50,000 ground source heat pumps a year by 2030.

Zoisa North-Bond, CEO of Octopus Energy Generation, said: “The heat pump revolution is off to a flying start: it’s a tried and tested replacement for gas boilers and can drive down consumers’ energy bills for good. Backing Kensa will help rapidly expand Britain’s fast-growing ground source heat pump industry. This deal is a huge milestone for our exciting new energy transition fund, as we invest in ambitious companies rolling out tech to turbocharge the clean energy shift.”

This latest deal heralds Octopus Energy Group’s entry into the ground source heat pump market, and complements Octopus’ existing air source heat pump expertise. Octopus’ heat pump R&D centre is leading the way in creating a thriving low carbon heating economy, from training, engineering and installation. Octopus Energy Generation, which manages £6bn of renewable assets and energy transition projects, makes this investment as the first deal from its new £500m Octopus Energy Transition Fund (OETF), which is currently raising capital from investors.

The UK is targeting 600,000 heat pump installations a year by 2028 as part of wider efforts to decarbonise the economy.

At the same time Octopus Energy is investing in three new wind farms in France following its commitment to invest €1bn in French green energy market in next two years.

The three onshore wind farms, Croix Erable, Bertaut, and Le Langrois, have a combined capacity of 49MW and will be added to the 10 existing wind farms the company already manages in the country, bringing its total to 13. The company also manages 14 French solar farms and has numerous more projects in the pipeline.

Octopus Energy Group first entered the French market in January 2022 after acquiring French energy supplier Plüm énergie.

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