Ørsted Divests 50% Of 1,218 Megawatt Hornsea 1 Offshore Wind Farm
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Danish wind power company Ørsted announced on Wednesday that it had agreed to divest 50% of its stake in the 1,218 megawatt (MW) Hornsea 1 Offshore Wind Farm to Global Infrastructure Partners.
The Hornsea 1 Offshore Wind Farm will, upon completion in 2020, be the world’s largest offshore wind farm, coming in at 1,218 MW — but to be surpassed by the equally massive 1,386 MW Hornsea 2 Offshore Wind Farm. Ørsted’s normal business practice is to build a project and to divest a portion of the project to a separate investor at some point during construction or operation.
Ørsted will thus divest 50% to New York City-based investment fund Global Infrastructure Partners — which has already made several big-name renewable energy investments over the past few years including 50% stakes in the 330 MW German Gode Wind 1 offshore wind farm, the 450 MW Borkum Riffgrund 2 Offshore Wind Farm, and more recently the acquisition of a 4.7 gigawatt (GW) pipeline of utility-scale solar development projects from SunPower.
While Global Infrastructure Partners will own a 50% stake in Hornsea 1, Ørsted will continue to construct the project under a full scope EPC contract, as well as provide long-term operations and maintenance services. The total cost of the transaction amounts to approximately £4.46 billion ($5.85 billion) which will be paid out between 2018 and 2020.
“This is our third partnership with GIP, and we are delighted to have one of the world’s largest infrastructure funds as a partner, in what will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm,” said Ole Kjems Sørensen, Executive Vice President for M&A, Partnerships and Asset Management at Ørsted. “The Hornsea 1 farm down is a landmark transaction which will create substantial value for our shareholders and reduce single asset exposure.”
Ørsted began construction of the project in January with the sinking of the first of 174 monopiles at the site, 120 kilometers off the coast of Yorkshire, England.
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