Danish wind giant Orsted has said it is “looking forward” to the next Scottish offshore wind leasing round as revenues rise from the sector.
Of the 5.3 terawatt-hours generated by its offshore wind farms in the first six months of 2019, 3.1 terawatt-hours came from the UK.
The UK’s largest wind developer reported a rise in half-year profits, boosted by rising generation from two new UK wind farms.
It reported a 2-per-cent increase in group earnings to 8.8 billion Danish kroner (€1.18 billion) because of “the ramp-up of output” from Borkum Riffgrund 2 off Germany, Walney Extension and Hornsea One. Orsted owns or has shared ownership with 11 completed wind farms in UK waters.
But the wind output was not “fully” satisfactory in the first six months of the year due to above-average outages and curtailments.
Orsted chief executive Henrik Poulsen said: “2019 has been a very good year for Orsted so far. Operating profit for the first half of the year amounted to 8.8 billion Danish kroner, which was in line with our expectations and keeps us well on track to deliver on our full-year guidance of 15.5-16.5 billion kroner.”
The renewables firm has reported an 18-per-cent increase in offshore wind revenues.
Construction began at the Orsted’s 175-turbine, 1.2-gigawatt Hornsea One project off the East Yorkshire coast last year, which is set to overtake 657-megawatt Walney as the world’s largest offshore wind farm when it is due to be completed next year. Hornsea One generated power from its first turbine in February. Hornsea Two is also due to overtake Walney in the Irish Sea.
Hornsea One was expected to power more than 1 million homes, the world’s largest offshore wind company added.
The Danish firm said both projects were on schedule.
Orsted said it was “looking forward to seeing the full details” of offshore leasing options being released under the ScotWind leasing round due in October.
There was a platform fire at a wind farm off Denmark and delays because of cable repairs at the London Array wind farm off the coast of Kent in southern England and outages at Race Bank, west of Duddon Sands and Burbo Bank, which are both in the UK.
Orsted has transformed itself from the Danish Oil and Natural Gas company into the world’s biggest offshore wind developer. It is majority-owned by the Danish authorities.
The Orsted Institute in Copenhagen. Picture credit: Wikimedia
