The UK’s largest energy supplier, Octopus Energy, is entering the Chinese market with a joint venture to trade renewable power in the world’s top clean energy market.

Octopus Energy announced the deal on Friday, as the UK’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer is on an official visit to China to restart UK-Chinese relations.

As part of an agreement with China’s PCG Power, Octopus Energy will form a joint venture to trade renewable energy across the world’s largest clean energy market.

The joint venture is also a major step in exporting British energy tech overseas, according to Octopus Energy.  

The new company will be named Bitong Energy and will bring together PCG Power’s experience as the leading and fastest-growing investor and solutions provider in China’s Commercial & Industrial (C&I) renewable energy sector, with Octopus’ cutting-edge technology for green energy trading and optimization, the UK firm said.

Bitong Energy will power China’s rapidly expanding spot power markets – where energy is bought and sold in real time for a smarter, more efficient grid.

Operations will be launched first in the province of Guangdong, which is China’s leading spot market, before expanding nationwide across the country.

The joint venture aims to trade up to 140 terrawatt-hours (TWh) of renewable power a year by the end of the decade. This would be equal to the UK’s entire current green energy output. The power trade is expected to generate by 2030 about £50 million, or $69 million, in annual profits, half of which would flow back to the UK, Octopus Energy said.

“There’s a huge opportunity for Britain to succeed as we build the solutions that use these products to cut the cost of electricity,” said Greg Jackson, founder and CEO of Octopus Energy.

“Our partnership with PCG aims to do exactly that – exporting our world-class energy capabilities to grow our economies and speed up the shift to cheaper, cleaner more secure energy.”

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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