Market expansion

Our capability

With global goals to cut carbon emissions and fight climate change, governments are looking towards renewable energy solutions. We´re convinced offshore wind will play a key role in the shift towards a greener future. In fact, offshore wind power is currently the fastest growing energy technology in Europe.

graphic comparison of hornsea project to vindeby

Our own green transformation has accelerated in recent years. We took the first step already in 1991, when we built the world’s first offshore wind farm, Vindeby, off the coast of the Danish island Lolland.

While Vindeby is today considered the cradle of the offshore wind industry, it wasn’t until a decade later that we built our next offshore wind farm, also in Denmark. And then, in 2006, we inaugurated Barrow, our first UK-based offshore wind farm.

This kicked off a journey of international growth and fruitful technology innovation which will reach a peak in 2022 when we finish our giant Hornsea Project Two 1,400MW offshore wind farm based on turbines around 20 times as powerful as the ones used for Vindeby.

The target was ambitious

The results speak for themselves:

In 2016, offshore wind was for the first time our biggest area of business
When we were publicly listed in 2016, it was very well received by the market, which confirmed our belief in delivering value to investor through our transformation to becoming a clean energy company
Since 2006, carbon emissions have been reduced by 86%. And we have decided to completely phase out coal by 2023, which will enable us to reach a 96% reduction in carbon emissions. Ørsted has set the target to become a carbon neutral company by 2025

Little less than a decade ago, we were an oil and gas company. We were one of the most coal intensive power utilities in Europe. Today, we are the energy company in Europe which has the highest share of renewables in its portfolio.

Right now, we are at very important point in history where renewables have become cheaper than conventional fuels. This means that these fuels will be the economic and rational choice going forward as well as being the sustainable choice.

Today, we are the global leader in offshore wind. We construct and operate offshore wind farms in Denmark, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan and the USA.

Our strategy is to continue to lead from the front, with an aim to reach a total of 15 GW offshore capacity by 2025.

Increasing our geographical reach

We have by far the largest capacity, the deepest technical competencies and the biggest pipeline of all offshore wind developers, and we have consequently been first in introducing the next generation of wind turbines. Until 2022, we will be constructing another three major offshore wind farms. Once operational, these wind farms will bring clean energy to millions of people, as well as contribute to a greener, healthier future for us all. Additionally, we have been awarded the rights to develop eight further offshore wind farms towards 2025.

Pioneers

We are pioneering technological developments to drive down costs so that green electricity from offshore wind can become even more competitive. Among our latest technical milestones are the world's first installation of the MHI Vestas 8MW offshore wind turbine at our Burbo Bank Extension wind farm. In fact, we have been the first to install the four latest generations of wind turbines.

Powerful partnerships

Our successful partnership model allows us to maintain a high paced build-out of offshore wind farms. Typically, we divest 50% of our offshore wind farms to industrial and institutional partners and re-invest the money in new, capital intensive renewables projects.

Wind Farm	Partner
Anholt Havmøllepark	PensionDenmark, PKA
Borkum Riffgrund 1	William Demant, Kirkbi
Nysted	PensionDenmark, Stadtwerke Lübeck
Gunfleet Sands	JERA, DBJ
Horns Rev 1	Vattenfall
Lincs	GIG, Macquarie, BEA Systems Pension Funds, USS
London Array	Masdar, CDPQ, RWE
Walney	PGGM, SSE
West of Duddon Sands	Scottish Power Renewables
Gode Wind 2	PKA, Industriens Pension, Lærernes Pension og Lægernes Pensionskasse
Westermost Rough	MEIFS, USS, Stepstone
Race Bank	Macquarie

Wind technology

Just one rotation of the largest offshore wind turbines will produce enough power to cover a household's power consumption for 29 hours

Learn more about our wind technology