Ørsted Acquires Deepwater Wind, Creates the Leading Offshore Wind Platform in USA

One of the world’s largest offshore wind energy developers, Ørsted, announced yesterday that it will acquire 100% equity in Rhode Island based Deepwater Wind after agreeing to a purchase price of $510 Million with D.E. Shaw Group. The two companies’ offshore wind assets and organizations will be merged into the leading US offshore wind platform with the most comprehensive geographic coverage and the largest pipeline of development capacity.

Deepwater wind built the first U.S. offshore wind farm, the 30 MW Block Island Wind and has two additional facilities off Long Island, New York (South Fork at 90 MW) and Connecticut (Revolution Wind at 600 MW) under construction. According to Ørsted, Deepwater Wind’s portfolio has a total potential capacity of approximately 3.3 GW, containing:

• Block Island (30 MW), the only operational offshore wind farm in the US
• Three offshore wind development projects in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland and New York totaling 810 MW of capacity with long-term revenue contracts in place or pending finalization.
• Approximately 2.5 GW of offshore wind development potential across three well-sited BOEM lease areas in Massachusetts and Delaware. Of these 2.5 GW, 1.2 GW is developed through an equal joint venture with PSEG, a leading New Jersey utility.
• Jeffrey Grybowski, CEO of Deepwater Wind, said, “Ørsted is one of the world’s great clean energy companies and real pioneers in the offshore wind sector. We could not be more pleased with this combination, which will bring together two great teams to realize an enormous clean energy resource for coastal populations in the US.”

Jeffrey Grybowski, CEO of Deepwater Wind, said, “Ørsted is one of the world’s great clean energy companies and real pioneers in the offshore wind sector. We could not be more pleased with this combination, which will bring together two great teams to realize an enormous clean energy resource for coastal populations in the US.”

Ørsted, the largest wind farm developer in the world, which has global portfolio of projects in Britain, Germany, Taiwan had bid on the Connecticut and another project in Massachusetts, likely to be the largest offshore wind installation in the US but lost both bids.

The acquisition of Deepwater Wind appears to be an attempt by Ørsted to better navigate the regulatory and political systems of the United States.

Martin Neubert, CEO of Offshore Wind at Ørsted, said, “With this transaction we’re creating the number one offshore wind platform in North America, merging the best of two worlds: Deepwater Wind’s longstanding expertise in originating, developing and permitting offshore wind projects in the US, and Ørsted’s unparalleled track-record in engineering, constructing, and operating large-scale offshore wind farms. Today’s announcement consolidates Ørsted’s position as the global market leader in offshore wind with a strong foothold across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.”

With the combined organization and asset portfolio, Ørsted will be able to deliver clean energy to the seven states on the US East Coast that have already committed to build more than 10 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030.

Recently, we reported that the world’s largest offshore wind farm, the Walney Extension developed by Ørsted had opened off the coast of Cumbria, U.K.