Octopus Energy’s generation arm and leading German renewables developer Energiequelle have teamed up to launch OQTO-X – a new joint venture aimed at cutting energy costs and emissions for businesses across Europe.

OQTO-X will support commercial and industrial businesses (C&I) across Germany, Austria, Poland, and the Czech Republic by planning and installing solar panels and large-scale batteries, overseeing financing, and helping them efficiently manage the generated energy.

The business aims to invest €200 million (£173m) by 2030 through Octopus’s landmark‘ Sky fund (ORI SCsp), helping to slash industrial carbon emissions and energy costs.

Germany, home to energy-intensive sectors such as chemicals, metals, and steel, ranks among Europe’s top industrial greenhouse gas emitters – with industry accounting for roughly 24% of the country’s total emissions in 2024*.

With over 1.7 GW of clean energy projects across the globe, Energiequelle is one of Germany’s driving forces in the renewables sector.

This marks Octopus Energy’s 10th investment in German renewables in three years, and a major step toward its target of channelling €1 billion into the country’s Energiewende. It now manages over 3.3 GW of solar and wind projects across Germany.

OQTO-X is Octopus’s latest investment in the European C&I sector, building on successful energy deals in the UK, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

Germany is Octopus’s second-biggest market after the UK. The company recently reached a major milestone, powering 1 million German homes – the first country outside the UK where Octopus has achieved this feat.

Last month, the global energy and tech business announced it is launching Octopus Electric Vehicles, the UK’s largest EV-only leasing business, in Germany early next year.

Zoisa North-Bond, CEO von Octopus Energy Generation, said: “We're working relentlessly to drive the global energy revolution and make energy better for people and businesses.

We're hugely excited to partner with Energiequelle to bring even more clean energy to Germany, Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic – home to some of Europe’s largest industrial centres – and help decarbonise industry in the region.”

Michael Raschemann, Managing Director and Founder at Energiequelle, said: “We see clear benefits in directly supplying companies with locally generated green electricity, making it a forward-looking business area for our company. Our goal is to provide energy from our plants in a way that’s demand-oriented, reliable, and cost-effective."

Construction work has begun on Energiequelle GmbH’s repowering project at the Minden-Hahlen wind farm in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany). Three new Nordex N149 wind turbines, each with a total height of nearly 200 meters and a combined capacity of 17.1 megawatts, will replace five older turbines of the types NEG Micon NM 60/1000 and Enercon E-40.

With a rotor diameter of 149 meters and state-of-the-art technology, the new turbines will generate approximately 40,000 megawatt-hours of electricity annually. This represents an increase of around 600 percent compared to the output of the original wind farm.
“The repowering in Minden is a strategic step toward securing the future. With fewer turbines, we generate significantly more power, ensuring maximum land-use efficiency,” says Jan Schrobsdorff, Project Manager at Energiequelle GmbH. In the future, around 9,500 four-person households will be supplied with sustainably produced electricity from the wind farm.

The project was planned in close coordination with the city of Minden and the relevant authorities. Approval was granted under the Federal Immission Control Act in December 2024. All three turbines are scheduled to be commissioned by the end of October 2026.

Energiequelle GmbH, together with the citizens’ energy cooperatives “Saale-Holzland”, “Ilmtal” and “Jena” has been honored by the Thuringian Energy and GreenTech Agency (ThEGA). The award acknowledges the collaborative planning of the Großschwabhausen wind farm in the Weimarer Land region of Thuringia. A total of six Enercon E-160 wind turbines are planned, each with a hub height of 166.6 meters and a combined capacity of 33.36 MW. The close cooperation between Energiequelle and the participating cooperatives enables up to three of the six turbines to be transferred into citizen ownership, allowing local residents to directly benefit from the revenues generated by wind power.

Ramona Rothe, Head of the Wind Service Center at ThEGA, describes the project as a model for successful citizen involvement and regional value creation. Stefan Siegmund, Head of Project Management at Energiequelle’s Thuringian office, confirms: “The cooperation with the cooperatives is a forward-looking model that strengthens acceptance and participation.” Further projects with citizen energy stakeholders are already being planned in northern Thuringia.

Implementation in Two Construction Phases
Approval for the first construction phase, involving two turbines in the Kleinschwabhausen district, was granted in early July. Construction is scheduled to begin in March 2027, with commissioning planned for May 2028. The second phase, comprising four additional turbines, is expected to receive approval in early 2026, with commissioning set for October 2028.

With the Großschwabhausen wind farm, Energiequelle is sending a clear signal for a decentralized and citizen-oriented energy transition in Thuringia.

Energiequelle GmbH has successfully passed the audit for ISO/IEC 27001, which included the transition to the updated standard version ISO/IEC 27001:2022. The result confirms the effectiveness of the Information Security Management System (ISMS) introduced by Energiequelle in 2023, as well as the successful advancement in the field of information security.

The new version of the standard includes, among other things, expanded requirements for risk treatment, stronger integration of cybersecurity aspects, and a modernized structure for security controls.

Energiequelle remains one of the few control centers in Germany to hold this certification. Doreen Jurke-Kerbs, Information Security Officer at Energiequelle, expressed pride in the achievement: “The certification underscores our commitment to information security and our continuous pursuit of the highest standards.” Dirk Rampenthal, Head of Certifications & Services at Energiequelle, also emphasized the importance of the audit: “Security and quality in our operations are essential to providing our customers with the best possible service.”

Energiequelle received the certificate for the successful audit on June 12, 2025. As part of a holistic management system, the company is already preparing for the next step: certification according to ISO 9001, the globally recognized standard for quality management.

As part of the repowering project in Raßlitz, Saxony, Energiequelle has successfully commissioned two Enercon E-160 wind turbines. These new turbines replace the previous E-58 models and feature a hub height of 166.6 meters and a capacity of 5.56 MW each. This upgrade increases the energy output eightfold. The projected annual energy yield of the new turbines is around 40.8 million kilowatt-hours, which is enough to supply more than ten thousand households with green, CO₂-free electricity – a significant step forward for the energy transition in the region.

Long planning phase
The commissioning of the new wind turbines followed a long and challenging planning process. The first planning steps by Energiequelle GmbH began back in 2013 and progressed with the signing of the lease agreements in 2017. It took another seven years before the potential site was designated as a priority and suitable area for wind energy in the regional development plan. With the establishment of planning rights in 2020, Energiequelle was able to submit the permit application under the Federal Immission Control Act (BImSchG), which was approved in autumn 2022. The official declaration of completeness for the application, multiple changes to planning regulations due to Saxon legislation, and growing resistance to wind energy expansion in the state of Saxony were just some of the hurdles that had to be overcome.

A particularly demanding task was the construction of a dedicated substation, as Fabian Musall, Head of Project Management at Energiequelle’s Dresden office, explains: “After successfully participating in the Federal Network Agency’s tender and receiving the maximum award, we were informed that the originally planned substation was no longer available due to increased capacity. We had to quickly mobilize all resources to build our own substation.”

This effort was successful, and since June 20, the energy generated by the wind farm has been reliably fed into the public grid.

The wind farm has been sold to Encavis AG, a leading European renewable energy producer. The company operates a broadly diversified portfolio of onshore wind farms, ground-mounted solar installations, and battery storage systems.

Energiequelle GmbH has been successful in the Federal Network Agency’s May tender. The company received contracts for both submitted wind farm projects. In Ennigerloh, located in the Warendorf district of North Rhine-Westphalia, one wind turbine with a capacity of 5.56 MW is planned. In the repowering project in Gehlenberg (Cloppenburg district, Lower Saxony), five turbines with a total capacity of 27.8 MW are scheduled.

Ennigerloh is the first project at the still young Energiequelle site in Münster, while the company has been active in Gehlenberg for 25 years. The 13 old E-66 turbines are currently managed by Energiequelle’s operations team. Construction for both projects is scheduled to begin in 2026.

“The permits and contract awards are important milestones – both for our continued growth and for the transition to a sustainable energy supply in Germany,” says Michael Raschemann, Managing Director of Energiequelle GmbH.