Ørsted Completes $610M Farm-Down of UK Offshore Wind Farm

(Credit: West of Duddon Sands)

Ørsted has completed a 24.5% stake divestment in West of Duddon Sands offshore wind farm to funds managed by Schroders Greencoat for approximately $610 million.

Located approximately 14 km off the U.K. west coast, West of Duddon Sands has been operating since 2014 and has a capacity of 389 MW.

The transaction builds on a strong collaboration between Ørsted and Schroders Greencoat who is also an existing partner on four Ørsted offshore wind farms Walney, Burbo Bank Extension, Hornsea 1, and Borkum Riffgrund 1.

Ørsted will retain a 25.5%, pro-rata consolidated interest in West of Duddon Sands and will remain the operator under the existing operations and maintenance agreement.

 “Farm-downs and partnerships are an integral part of Ørsted’s business model, and we’re pleased to expand our partnership with Schroders Greencoat, who has a proven track record in managing renewable energy infrastructure assets and is a highly valued partner to Ørsted.

“With today’s announcement we continue to deliver on our farm-down programme with a transaction that meets our strategic objectives for partnerships and divestments in terms of value creation, risk diversification, and capital recycling,” said Trond Westlie, Group CFO of Ørsted.

Ørsted currently operates more than 5 GW of offshore wind capacity and has an additional 5 GW under construction or in development, including the Hornsea 3 and Hornsea 4 projects, both of which have secured CfDs.

Globally, Ørsted has installed 18.5 GW renewable energy across offshore wind, onshore wind, solar PV, and battery storage, and has another more than 8 GW under construction.