Ørsted Raises Offshore Wind Target To 15 Gigawatts By 2025

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Danish wind energy giant Ørsted has announced this week that it has not only increased its offshore wind target to 15 gigawatts (GW) by 2025 but has also committed DKK 200 billion ($30.2 billion) to invest in green energy by the same time.

On Wednesday, Ørsted announced its new strategic ambition and financial targets moving towards 2025, in connection with the company’s Capital Markets Day. The company plans to invest approximately DKK 200 billion between 2019 to 2025 to strengthen its build-out of renewable energy — of which investments in offshore wind farms are expected to account for 75% to 85% of the investment total. Onshore wind energy investments will therefore only account for 15% to 20% while the company’s combined investments in Bioenergy and Customer Solutions will only amount to between 0% to 5%.

“We expect the global market for renewable energy to more than triple towards 2030. As one of the leading companies within renewable energy, Ørsted has a strong platform to take part in this build-out,” CEO and President Henrik Poulsen explained.

Ørsted already boasts a portfolio made up of 11.9 GW worth of offshore and onshore wind farms, as well as biomass-fired combined heat and power plants which are currently in various stages of development. The company also boasts a further 4.7 GW worth of awarded concessions but which have yet to reach Final Investment Decision (FID).

“We have a strong growth platform to support our strategic ambition,” said Poulsen. “We want to maintain our position as global market leader in offshore wind and continue our build-out in Europe, North America and Asia. Our second growth platform is our Onshore business, consisting of onshore wind, solar energy and energy storage. It’s our ambition to create a leading North American company within renewable energy. In addition, we’ll continue to explore the growth and value creation potential in our Bioenergy business and strengthen the route to market for our product portfolio in Customer Solutions.”

Supporting this build out, Ørsted expects to increase its operating profit (EBITDA — earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) from offshore and onshore wind farms by 20% a year, until it peaks in 2023 at around DKK 25-26 billion. The largest share of the company’s EBITDA will remain its contract-based or regulated activities.

In the end, Ørsted hopes to increase the share of green energy in its overall generation from 64% in 2017 to 99% in 2025.