Orsted Quits Norway Offshore Wind Projects - gCaptain
Orsted Quits Norway Offshore Wind Projects
By Rachel Morison and Priscila Azevedo Rocha (Bloomberg) —
Orsted A/S has withdrawn from a partnership developing offshore wind projects in Norway as the company grapples with big losses resulting from rising costs.
Orsted quit a consortium with Fred. Olsen Renewables AS and Hafslund Eco citing “a prioritization of investments” in its portfolio, according to the company. The pullback is a further sign of how the world’s largest developer of wind farms is scaling back after being forced to cut some US projects, which resulted in a third-quarter net loss.
Orsted is at the center of a crisis for the offshore wind industry with companies struggling to fund large developments. Higher financing and component costs combined with increased competition have slowed the pace of renewable energy around the world, making it harder for developers and suppliers to make new projects profitable.
“We are carefully prioritizing our investments and therefore adjusting business development and bidding activities, particularly in some of our new markets,” Alana Kuhne, vice president and head of new markets in Europe at Orsted, said in an emailed statement. “As part of this we have decided not to prioritize offshore wind development in Norway for now and will therefore not to be participating in the upcoming tenders.”
Shares in Orsted fell as much as 2.8% on Monday and are near the lowest for six years after the Danish utility dropped two US wind projects and recorded 28.4 billion kroner ($4 billion) in impairments earlier this month.
Hafslund and Fred. Olsen Seawind will continue their partnership with a view to pursuing the Utsira Nord project specifically and offshore wind in Norway generally, according to a statement by Bonheur ASA.
© 2023 Bloomberg L.P.
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Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.