Orsted pays out £450m to break into US wind power market

ONE of the largest wind farm developers in the UK has paid more than half a billion dollars for a slice of the booming US wind power market.

Denmark’s Orsted, formerly known as Dong Energy, has been actively hunting out long-term opportunities in the US to complement its record-breaking offshore developments in UK waters. It used its better-than-expected first-half financial results to announce plans to pay $580m (£450m) for Chicago-based onshore wind farm developer Lincoln Clean Energy.

Orsted’s profits for the first six months of the year climbed to 8.6bn Danish kroner (£1.04bn), 4pc higher than analyst expectations, despite lower wind speeds across the UK in recent months. The chief executive, Henrik Poulsen, said the UK’S rising energy prices helped to offset the sluggish wind speeds. The calmer conditions also aided the company’s efforts in constructing the Race Bank and Walney Extension offshore projects, which are starting up at a lower cost and “well ahead of schedule”.

Mr Poulsen said the company was also on track to sell off a 50pc stake in its Hornsea 1 offshore wind project in the North Sea in the coming months.

Should a deal emerge in the second half of the year, he said profits would be significantly higher than the Dkr22.5bn it made last year.

Shares in the Copenhagen-listed group surged 7.1pc to Dkr412.5 following the announcements, meaning the £21bn company is now worth more than 50pc more than when it listed on the exchange a little over two years ago.

Orsted’s move into the onshore wind market, through the Lincoln deal, will open up further growth opportunities for the company, Mr Poulsen said.