Dive Brief:
- Danish energy company and offshore wind developer Ørsted announced on Monday its purchase of Deepwater Wind for $510 million.
- Following regulatory approval, Ørsted anticipates the acquisition from Deepwater Wind's owner, D.E. Shaw Group, to close by the end of this year. The new entity will be named Ørsted US Offshore Wind and will have co-CEOs from Ørsted's current U.S. operations and from Deepwater Wind.
- Deepwater Wind still intends to bid on New Jersey's 1.1 GW offshore wind solicitation, a spokesperson told Utility Dive via email. The company had previously competed with Ørsted's joint venture with Eversource, Bay State Wind, for other solicitations, such as Connecticut's 200 MW request for proposals, which Deepwater Wind secured in June.
Dive Insight:
The announcement comes as the nascent offshore wind industry in the U.S. has received state commitments to build more than 10 GW of capacity by 2030.
The acquisition brings Deepwater Wind's experience "in originating, developing and permitting" domestic projects to the European company's technical track-record with developing large-scale offshore wind farms, Martin Neubert, CEO of offshore wind at Ørsted, said in a statement.
The only offshore wind project currently operating in the U.S. is Deepwater Wind's 30 MW Block Island project in Rhode Island, where the developer is based. While the European sector familiar to Ørsted is more advanced in terms of offshore wind construction and supply chains, U.S. contracts have already been awarded for hundreds of megawatts in the past year.
The Danish company has developmental rights for up to 5.5 GW between two projects — on its own in New Jersey or as part of its Bay State Wind joint venture in Massachusetts. In addition, Ørsted will construct a 12 MW pilot program for Dominion Energy off the coast of Virginia, with the potential to develop up to 2 GW of offshore wind in subsequent phases.
Ørsted did not reply to requests for comment by time of publication. Competing developer Vineyard Wind declined to comment on the impact of the acquisition on the competitiveness of offshore wind in the U.S.
