Denmark's Ørsted to Pay Glencore to Take Ørsted's LNG Business

From LNG World News:

Ørsted sells LNG business to Glencore
Danish renewable energy company Ørsted has signed an agreement to divest its liquefied natural gas (LNG) business to natural resources company Glencore.

In December 2007, Ørsted entered into a long-term agreement with the Dutch LNG regasification terminal Gate in Rotterdam regarding the right to use 3 billion cubic metres of annual regasification capacity from 2011 to 2031, Ørsted noted in its statement on Thursday.

Today, Ørsted’s LNG business consists of the long-term regasification capacity agreement with the Gate terminal in Rotterdam and five LNG purchase agreements.

Even though Ørsted’s LNG team has performed well during the last few years, the business has been loss-making and is projected to remain so for years to come, the company said, adding that further financial improvements would require further contractual commitments.

With Ørsted’s expansion in renewable energy, it is clear that LNG trading will not be a part of Ørsted’s future core business, and it is therefore being divested, the company said.

The transaction entails a payment from Ørsted to Glencore....

Maybe Bayer can use this kind of financial wizardry to get rid of Monsanto.

Wind Major Ørsted and Hydrocarbon Major BP Strike up Green Hydrogen Partnership in Germany

 From Offshore Energy, November 10:

Ørsted and the multinational oil and gas major bp have agreed to jointly develop a potential large-scale renewable hydrogen project in Germany powered by offshore wind.

The project, which is expected to be operational in 2024, will comprise a 50 MW electrolyser system installed at bp’s Lingen Refinery in North West Germany.

The electrolyser, powered by an Ørsted North Sea offshore wind farm, will be capable of generating almost 9,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen a year.

The project is also intended to support a longer-term ambition to build more than 500 MW of renewable hydrogen capacity at Lingen. This could provide renewable hydrogen to both meet all the refinery’s hydrogen demand and provide feedstock for future synthetic fuel production.

“Heavy industries such as refineries use large quantities of hydrogen in their manufacturing processes,” Martin Neubert, Executive Vice President for Ørsted, said.

”They will continue to need hydrogen, but replacing the currently fossil-based hydrogen with hydrogen produced from renewable energy can help these industries dramatically lower their CO2 footprint. But first, renewable hydrogen has to become cost competitive with fossil-based hydrogen, and for that we need projects such as this with bp’s Lingen refinery which will demonstrate the electrolyser technology at large scale and showcase real-life application of hydrogen based on offshore wind.”

Besides the green hydrogen production itself, the project is additionally focusing on maximizing the efficiency of the electrolyser system and allowing flexible operation and complete integration into the refinery....

....MORE

Previously on Ørsted:
Wind Power Biggie Ørsted to Power Yara Green Ammonia Plant
"Germany okays funding for major green hydrogen project"
"Ørsted Bets Hydrogen Is Key to Climate Goals"
Denmark's Ørsted to Pay Glencore to Take Ørsted's LNG Business
Maybe Bayer can use this kind of financial wizardry to get rid of Monsanto.

"How the U.S. Market Went Sideways for a Wind-Power Giant"

A deep dive from the Wall Street Journal, November 20:

Ørsted’s pullback from East Coast wind farms left the region scrambling 

The poster child for the wind-power revolution was supposed to help build America’s clean-energy future. Its messy pullback from the Northeast is threatening those aspirations.

Denmark’s national oil-and-gas company, now known as Ørsted, bet big on renewables a decade ago. It renounced fossil fuels, renamed itself after a 19th-century physicist and embarked on a debt-fueled expansion, becoming the biggest offshore-wind developer outside China. Surfing investor enthusiasm for all things green, Ørsted surpassed

BP

in market value early in the pandemic.

A hotbed of activity was the U.S., where Ørsted made a play at dominating the nascent wind market. The company lined up high-profile projects off the East Coast championed by Democratic-led states with ambitious climate targets.

Much of that work is at risk of running aground.

The company’s cancellation of two New Jersey wind farms on Halloween drew charges of incompetence from the governor and sparked what could be a $300 million legal spat. In New York, a pricing dispute has threatened to delay Albany’s renewable-energy goals. A New England utility partner is trying to unload stakes in three joint projects. Suppliers across the region are in limbo.

Ørsted might need to cancel more projects, sell parts of existing wind farms, or cut its dividend or issue stock to shore up its balance sheet, analysts and investors say. Any turnaround will come under a new-look C-suite after the chief financial officer and chief operating officer stepped down last week.

Ørsted’s stock has plunged more than 75% from its high in 2021, including a roughly 19% drop this quarter.

Similar upheaval is rippling across an industry that the Biden administration placed at the heart of America’s green-energy ambitions. Inflation drove up prices for turbines, labor and steel. Higher interest rates lifted financing costs. Creating an East Coast network of factories, ports, transmission lines and interconnection facilities—all while companies await a glacial permitting process—proved easier said than done. 

Even in Europe, a capital-intensive industry that thrived when interest rates were low and costs fell year after year is in trouble. “I don’t think we are out of the woods,” said Manuel Losa of Pictet Asset Management, who sold Ørsted shares in 2021.

Ørsted was more vulnerable than most to a surge in inflation and interest rates because stiff competition had already driven down power prices and expected returns from offshore-wind projects, former executives say. Some analysts say higher prices planned for the next round of projects in New York and the U.K. could help the industry rebound and aid states in upgrading aging energy infrastructure....

....MUCH MORE

JPMorgan, Ørsted Close $680MM Tax-Equity Financing Solar/Storage Deal

From Ørsted, May 23:

Ørsted Closes $680 Million in Tax Equity Financing for Solar and Storage Portfolio 

Today, Ørsted, a leading U.S. clean energy developer, announced an investment from J.P. Morgan for $680 million in tax equity financing for a portfolio of solar and storage assets in Texas and Arizona. The project portfolio consists of Eleven Mile Solar Center, a 300 MW solar and 300 MW /1200 MWh storage project in Pinal County, Arizona and Sparta Solar, a 250 MW solar project in Mineral, Texas.

This deal represents one of the largest solar and storage tax equity transactions that uses a combined production tax credit (PTC) and investment tax credit (ITC) structure since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in August 2022. The Eleven Mile Solar Center will receive a one-time investment tax credit for its battery storage system while the solar farm will generate production tax credits over a ten-year period.

The tax equity partnership with J.P. Morgan includes the option for tax credit transferability. This new tax credit transfer option, created by the IRA, opened a new market for any corporate buyer to support clean energy projects and optimize their federal tax bill through the purchase of tax credits.

“Ørsted is an experienced developer and operator of renewable energy projects in the U.S., including offshore and onshore wind, solar, and battery storage, all of which will generate tax credits valuable to investors,” said James Giamarino, Chief Commercial Officer for the Americas at Ørsted. “With this new market unlocked by the IRA, we’re excited to continue our tax equity partnership with J.P. Morgan and bring on new entities looking to advance the U.S. renewable energy industry, support job growth, and promote local economic development.”

The tax equity investment will help fund the completion of both projects, which totals 550 MW of solar capacity and 300 MW of battery energy storage with the capacity to discharge for 4 hours (1200MWh). Commercial operations for both projects are expected to commence in 2024. The agreement also builds on J.P. Morgan’s existing investments in 1.8 GW of Ørsted’s total 5.7 GW onshore portfolio in the United States....

....MORE

Similar, December 27, 2023:

Jackpot: "First Solar to sell up to $700 million in IRA tax credits to Fiserv" (FSLR)

Wind: Ørsted Shares Crash Below (2016) IPO Price On "Unexpected" Rights Issue

Someone seems to be missing their ⌀. I put it in the headline but am too lazy to replace it in the text. 

From ZeroHedge, August 11:

Shares of Danish company Orsted A/S crashed the most on record after the wind developer announced a rights offering of up to 60 billion kroner ($9.4 billion). The offering aims to stabilize its finances, which have been hit hard by soaring costs, supply chain disruptions, and President Trump's rollback of "green" energy projects. 

Orsted shares plunged 29%, falling below their 2016 IPO price after the company announced the largest share offering in the European energy sector since Enel SpA in 2009. The capital raise is an attempt by the CEO to shore up finances as the entire green energy sector comes under severe pressure in the era of Trump and common-sense energy policies. 

With wind farm construction as its core business, Orsted has been exposed to more canceled projects than any of its industry peers, including ones in the US and the UK. The funding gap swelled after scrapping a stake sale in the Sunrise Wind project off New York. 

Orsted also announced the sale of its European onshore wind unit, targeting 35 billion kroner from divestments by next year, and plans to invest 145 billion kroner from 2025-27 while maintaining an investment-grade rating and resuming dividends in 2026. Full-year EBITDA guidance remains at 25 to 28 billion kroner, though offshore wind targets were cut due to weaker wind speeds.

"Orsted and our industry are in an extraordinary situation with the adverse market development in the US on top of the past years' macroeconomic and supply chain challenges," CEO Rasmus Errboe said in a statement.

Commenting on the rights offer, Goldman analysts led by Alberto Gandolfi told clients that Orsted's offering was "largely unexpected, with clarity expected by mid-September… but also a clean-up move."

Gandolfi explained more:

Orsted has just announced the intention to carry out a DKK 60 bn rights issue (c.€8 bn), equivalent to around 45% of its market capitalisation. Although not totally unexpected to us – in our recent report (here), we flagged execution risks on disposals and FCF headwinds from rolling incentives – we believe this would come as a surprise to most of the Sell Side. Given the size, the rights issue would be highly dilutive, and hence we believe could lead to a swift drop in the share price. We also note that we have not seen the terms of the rights issue, and the terms (based on the H1 investor presentation available on Orsted website) would be disclosed in the first half of September, thus implying 3-4 weeks of market uncertainty. On the other hand, we highlight that once completed, this would most likely represent a "clean up move" as we would expect the resulting B/S (post rights issue) to be solid. As a reference, consensus YE Net Debt currently stands at DKK 75 bn on Bloomberg, and we project 2025 EBITDA at DKK c.28 bn. A restored B/S strength would put less pressure on Orsted to divest assets (current plan implies DKK 40 bn pending disposals). Lastly, we also flag that, pre raise, Bloomberg consensus P/E for 2026 is a mere 12x; the stock would therefore not be on an overly high P/E even post rights. We remain Neutral rated.

The analysts maintained a "Neutral" rating on the stock with a 300-kroner 12-month price target....

 

....MUCH MORE, more analysts weigh in.

Earlier this morning we saw a headline quoting Nordnet's Per Hansen describe the situation as:

“It's an utter disaster”

And the thing is, this didn't sneak up on the market, it has been apparent for at least three years. 

November 2023 -  "Wind industry deals with blowback from Ørsted scrapping 2 wind power projects in New Jersey"

Previously:

"Offshore Wind Developers Likely to Cancel Some Contracts After NY Decision"

Ørsted CEO Says U.S. Offshore Wind Targets Not Out of Reach

"The first US offshore wind auction in the Gulf of Mexico was a dud"

Although we didn't focus on it in August 30's "Ørsted, "World's Largest Offshore Wind Farm-Maker Crashes Most On Record After Catastrophic Results"", during that same conference call Ørsted said it considered abandoning their big offshore New Jersey wind farm but will stick with it, for now.  

They seemed to be doing better back when they were DONG Energy.

November 2023 - "How the U.S. Market Went Sideways for a Wind-Power Giant"

August 2024 - "Ørsted Takes $500 Million Hit Led by Connecticut Wind Delay"

"Ørsted and Amazon sign Europe’s largest offshore wind energy corporate PPA" and "Amazon becomes largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy"

 This is the type of stuff I was writing about in the introduction to December 9's Knowledge@Wharton:: "Why ESG Investors Are Happy to Settle for Lower Returns":

Warning: Because there is a paucity of alt-energy stocks that don't rely on cobalt mined by children in the DRC (for example), certainly not $30 trillion worth, the vast majority of equities touted as ESG by the marketeers are tech stocks.

In part this is because the Google's of the world can claim energy efficiency by talking revenue per kilowatt of electricity used or carbon neutrality because their data centers use hydro-produced electricity or because they don't have smokestacks that some ambush photojournalist can snap pictures of or, whatever.

What this means in practical terms is that when you buy ESG you are buying growth and hypergrowth stocks. Meaning that if there actually is a rotation to value/small cap/other factors etc,. ESG is going to lag, possibly dramatically and ESG investors had better be resigned to underperformance for a long time, and possibly until behaviors are mandated by force of law..

This isn't where the below piece is going but is something that should be top-of-mind any time the subject comes up.

From K@W:...

And today's stories. First up, EVWind, December 10:

Ørsted and Amazon sign Europe’s largest offshore wind energy corporate PPA

Amazon, the technology company based in Seattle, Washington, has signed a 10-year corporate power purchase agreement with Ørsted, the world-leader in offshore wind, to offtake the output of 250MW from Ørsted’s planned 900MW Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farm in Germany. This CPPA will contribute to Amazon’s target of being 100% renewable by 2030 as part of the company’s goal to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2040.

Rasmus Errboe, Senior Vice President, Head of Region Continental Europe at Ørsted Offshore and responsible for Corporate PPAs, said:

“We applaud Amazon’s leadership in corporate renewable energy investments which helps drive the green energy transformation forward....MUCH MORE

And from TameBay, December 13:

Amazon becomes largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy

Amazon have recently announced that they are set to become the largest-ever corporate purchaser of renewable energy.

Amazon have now invested in 6.5 GW of wind and solar projects to help supply their operations with more than 18 million megawatt hours (MWh) of renewable energy annually, enough to power 1.7 million U.S. homes for one year.

The projects are also helping towards Amazon’s goal to be net-zero carbon emissions across its business by 2040 in line with the Paris Agreement. The climate pledge is a commitment to hit the net-zero goal by 2025 and recently welcomed 5 further companies meaning 31 organisations in total are taking part in the pledge....

....MORE

All of which means AMZN will be touted as  an exemplar of ESG and poured into portfolios while the stock is rangebound since July after the Covid-19 double from the lows:

BigCharts 

Øerstad on the other hand seems to drop out of one of the feedreaders every other day 

As for the "Ø" see "Oh Oh Norway, You Are Busted".

"Wind industry deals with blowback from Ørsted scrapping 2 wind power projects in New Jersey"

From the AP via the Hartford Courant, November 1:

Wind energy developer Orsted is writing off $4 billion, due largely to the cancellation of two large offshore wind projects in New Jersey whose financial challenges mirror those facing the nascent industry.

It added fresh uncertainty to an industry seen by supporters as a way to help end the burning of planet-warming fossil fuels, but derided by opponents as inherently unworkable without massive financial subsidies.

The Danish company said Tuesday night it is scrapping its Ocean Wind I and II projects off the coast of southern New Jersey due to problems with supply chains, higher interest rates, and a failure to obtain the amount of tax credits the company wanted.

“These are obviously some very tough decisions,” Mads Nipper, Orsted’s CEO, said on an earnings conference call Wednesday.

He said the company, the world’s largest offshore wind developer, decided “to de-risk the most painful part of our portfolio, and that is the U.S.”

That statement went straight to the heart about concerns over the financial viability of the offshore wind industry in the northeastern U.S., which is in its infancy but has extensive plans from New England to the Carolinas.

Some projects already have been canceled, and many offshore wind developers are seeking better terms from governments with whom they have already contracted. New York rejected such a request two weeks ago....

....MUCH MORE

Here are the company's two press releases, both October 31: 

Ørsted ceases development of its US offshore wind projects Ocean Wind 1 and 2, takes final investment decision on Revolution Wind, and recognises DKK 28.4 billion impairments 

Interim report for the first nine months of 2023 – Ceased the development of Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2, took final investment decision on Revolution Wind, and impairment losses of DKK 28.4 billion

Previously:

"Offshore Wind Developers Likely to Cancel Some Contracts After NY Decision"

Ørsted CEO Says U.S. Offshore Wind Targets Not Out of Reach

"The first US offshore wind auction in the Gulf of Mexico was a dud"

Although we didn't focus on it in August 30's "Ørsted, "World's Largest Offshore Wind Farm-Maker Crashes Most On Record After Catastrophic Results"", during that same conference call Ørsted said it considered abandoning their big offshore New Jersey wind farm but will stick with it, for now.  

They seemed to be doing better back when they were DONG Energy.

Big Money: "Ørsted brings in new investors for Greater Changhua wind farm"

I mentioned last week that we seem to have a story on Ørsted drop out of a terminal or feedreader every other day. And not tiny deals.

From Splash 24/7:

Denmark-headquartered green energy giant Ørsted has signed agreements with a consortium comprising institutional investor Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and Taiwanese private equity fund Cathay PE to sell a 50% ownership share of its Greater Changhua 1 Offshore Wind Farm.

Ørsted is currently constructing the Greater Changhua 1 site and the project is expected to be completed in 2022.

“I’m delighted to welcome our long-term partner CDPQ and Cathay PE in Greater Changhua 1. It’s encouraging to once again see institutional investors playing an important role in the transition to renewable energy and low-emission economies....

....MORE

The Caisse runs about 260 billion USD but they prefer to quote in Loonies, $333 billion CAD.

Here's more at Le Journal de Montréal:

Énergie renouvelable: la Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec mise gros sur l’éolien à Taïwan

Watch Out Elon: "Ørsted partnership to develop 1GW battery storage across US Midwest"

Everybody wants to get into the act.

From Power Technology, August 9: 

The collaboration marks Ørsted’s entry to standalone battery storage in the US and globally.

Danish energy company Ørsted has partnered with Mission Clean Energy to develop four standalone battery energy storage systems with 1GW capacity across the US Midwest.

The collaboration marks Ørsted’s entry into standalone battery storage in the US and globally, enhancing its renewable energy portfolio.

The Danish energy company will deploy its capital to secure and sustain priority positions in the interconnection queue for its storage projects. Meanwhile, Mission Clean Energy will maintain its leadership role in driving the development of these initiatives.

Both companies have submitted interconnection applications for the projects within the Mid-Continent Independent System Operator (MISO) Central and North regions....

....MUCH MORE

"Ørsted in talks to sell 50% stake in flagship U.K. offshore wind project to Apollo - FT"

A quick hit from Seeking Alpha via MSN:

Ørsted (OTCPK:DNNGY) is in talks to sell a 50% stake in its £8.5 billion Hornsea 3 wind farm off the U.K. east coast to Apollo Global Management (APO), the Financial Times reported Friday, as the world's largest offshore wind developer tries to shore up its balance sheet.

Ørsted (OTCPK:DNNGY) launched a sale process for Hornsea 3 late last year and said in August that it had found a preferred bidder for the stake, without revealing the identity; the FT report now says the negotiations are with Apollo (APO)....

....MORE 

Ørsted seems to be making the right moves, cutting exposure here and in Korea, shoring up the balance sheet with cash etc. It might me late, as evidenced by the 67% discount that was required in the recent rights offering but it does seem to be planning to be around for a while.

For what it's worth the shareholders approved the rights offering and one of the larger existing shareholders seemed to like the pricing:

Nordic Solidarity: "Equinor to Subscribe for Orsted Shares Worth Up to $939 Million in Rights Issue"

Ørsted CEO Says U.S. Offshore Wind Targets Not Out of Reach

Someone seems to be missing their ⌀. I put it in the headline but am too lazy to replace it in the text.

From Reuters via gCaptain, September 18:

U.S. President Joe Biden’s plan to deploy 30,000 megawatts (MW) ofoffshore wind by 2030 is still possible, although not easy, the CEO of Orsted ORSTED.CO, the world’s largest offshore wind developer, said on Monday at the Climate Week NYC event in New York.

The remarks by Orsted CEO Mads Nipper come as soaring costs and supply chain delays have increasingly cast doubt on the Biden administration’s goal, a cornerstone of its plan to fight climate change. The Danish company said at the end of August that it may see U.S. impairments of $2.3 billion due to the market challenges.

Orsted Ready to Abandon U.S. Wind Projects Amid Challenges

“We’ve seen dark clouds gather,” Nipper said, noting that interest rates going from largely 0% to 4%, which is having a “very dramatic impact on renewables because the fuel of the renewable industry is capital.”

“We don’t need gas or oil or coal. It’s capital and that overnight has become significantly more expensive,” Nipper said.

Other challenges include “financially fragile” supply chains, “relatively uncertain policy frameworks,” and rising costs for “everything we need” from turbines to foundations and substations, Nipper said.

Policymakers and the industry need to accept that “for a little while the price of renewable power will have to go up, but we will bring it down again,” Nipper said....

....MUCH MORE

Previously:
Ørsted, "World's Largest Offshore Wind Farm-Maker Crashes Most On Record After Catastrophic Results"

"The first US offshore wind auction in the Gulf of Mexico was a dud"
Although we didn't focus on it in August 30's "Ørsted, "World's Largest Offshore Wind Farm-Maker Crashes Most On Record After Catastrophic Results"", during that same conference call Ørsted said it considered abandoning their big offshore New Jersey wind farm but will stick with it, for now.

Gold trades at $850 per Ounce. And: How We Got There the First Time

Again.
For a couple decades (since watching the XMI action on Oct. 20, 1987) I mentally run market movements through a thought experiment.*
(Gedankenexperiment, coined by Hans Christian Ørsted)

I call the thought experiment The Grassy Knoll Theory of Investing.
This name tends to insure that I am left alone at parties.
The GKTI has as its postulate: "There is a THEY" and its corollary "They know".

Except sometimes they don't.
(or do they?)

I use it to explain the inexplicable.
First I adjust my tin-foil hat.
Then I pick up the FT or the WSJ.
And think.

For example, why on earth was the Bank of England selling the British people's gold reserves at announced (!) auctions between July 1999 and March 2002 at a weighted average price of $274.92? Here's HM Treasury's explanation.
(page 27 of a 36 page PDF)

In most cases the GKTI is about as useful as Riemannian geometry.
You don't need Riemann to walk around the block, but knowledge of Great Circles sure helps to get you to your destination before the jet fuel runs out.

Which perambulation reminds me: The pedestrian conspiracy theories have the Queen of England mixing it up with the Rothschilds in a New World Order/Bilderberger/CFR/Trilateral shindig to rule the world.

Selling the nation's gold at the bottom of the market (the lowest p.m. price fix of the last 27+ years was $252.80, if memory serves) and just prior to a tripling of the price was either extraordinarily stupid or treason. Either way, someone should have been executed.
There have been no reports of shots at the Tower of London, though.

Here's the story that triggered this ramble: Gold, 1980.


*Origins and use of the term "thought experiment" from Wikipedia:

Witt-Hansen established that Hans Christian Ørsted was the first to use the Latin-German mixed term Gedankenexperiment (lit. experiment conducted in the thoughts) circa 1812. Ørsted was also the first to use its entirely German equivalent, Gedankenversuch, in 1820.

Much later, Ernst Mach used the term Gedankenexperiment to exclusively denote the imaginary conduct of a real experiment that would be subsequently performed as a real physical experiment by his students — thus the contrast between physical and mental experimentation — with Mach asking his students to provide him with explanations whenever it happened that the results from their subsequent, real, physical experiment had differed from those of their prior, imaginary experiment.

The English term thought experiment was coined (as a calque) from Mach’s Gedankenexperiment, and it first appeared in the 1897 English translation of one of Mach’s papers. Prior to its emergence, the activity of posing hypothetical questions that employed subjunctive reasoning had existed for a very long time (for both scientists and philosophers). However, people had no way of categorizing it or speaking about it. This helps to explain the extremely wide and diverse range of the application of the term "thought experiment" once it had been introduced into English.

"Offshore Wind Developers Likely to Cancel Some Contracts After NY Decision"

From Reuters via gCaptain, October 19:

Developers in the U.S. offshore wind industry will likely cancel some power sales contracts in New York after the state last week denied passing on more of the costs to consumers, but major projects off Massachusetts and Rhode Island are set to start up later this year. 

Several states and U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration consider offshore wind to be a key part of their plans to transition away from fossil fuels for energy, create jobs and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Last week, New York utility regulators dealt the industry a severe blow by denying requests to increase the amount of money New Yorkers would have to pay under existing contracts for power to be produced at four offshore wind projects under development.

The wind developers, including units of European energy companies Orsted, Equinor and BP, requested those increases to cover rising labor and equipment costs due to soaring inflation and higher financing costs from interest rate hikes....

....MUCH MORE

Most recently on wind:
Ørsted CEO Says U.S. Offshore Wind Targets Not Out of Reach

"The first US offshore wind auction in the Gulf of Mexico was a dud"
Although we didn't focus on it in August 30's "Ørsted, "World's Largest Offshore Wind Farm-Maker Crashes Most On Record After Catastrophic Results"", during that same conference call Ørsted said it considered abandoning their big offshore New Jersey wind farm but will stick with it, for now.

"Ørsted Takes $500 Million Hit Led by Connecticut Wind Delay"

From Bloomberg via gCaptain, August 15:

Orsted A/S booked an impairment of more than $500 million related to an offshore wind farm in the US and a canceled green hydrogen plant in Sweden. 

The action shows that Chief Executive Officer Mads Nipper’s turnaround plan for the Danish wind developer still has some way to go before bearing fruit. In total, the firm took a hit of 3.9 billion Danish kroner ($580 million) in the second quarter, including from delays at the Revolution Wind project off Connecticut and Rhode Island. 

Shares fell as much as 9.3% in Copenhagen, the biggest drop since November. 

It’s the latest sign of trouble for the nascent US offshore wind market that’s been a key part of President Joe Biden’s plans to decarbonize the American power grid. Orsted had to cancel two major projects in the US last year after delays and supply chain issues added unmanageable costs. The latest trouble shows developers still can’t predict all costs in this first generation of major projects. 

“It is frustrating and unsatisfactory,” Nipper said on a call with journalists Thursday morning. “Risk is an integrated part of projects. The early stage US market is hit harder than anywhere else.”

The firm is one of the world’s biggest renewable power developers, focusing primarily on offshore wind. Its projects are key to help the European Union meet its climate goals. The company developed the first offshore wind park in Denmark in the 1990s....

....MUCH MORE

Most recently (Aug. 11): Watch Out Elon: "Ørsted partnership to develop 1GW battery storage across US Midwest"

"Germany okays funding for major green hydrogen project"

From Renewables Now, August 6:

A project in Germany that aims to establish a regional hydrogen economy on an industrial scale has received support and funding approval from the federal energy ministry.

As part of the “real-world laboratories fostering the energy transition” programme, the Westkueste100 project got approval for EUR 30 million (USD 35.6m) of funding for the project’s launch this month. It has secured EUR 89 million in total, the project consortium said Monday.

EDF Deutschland, Holcim Deutschland, OGE, Ørsted Deutschland, Raffinerie Heide, municipal utility Thuega, and thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions are part of this consortium. The Region Heide development agency and the Westküste University of Applied Sciences are also participating. Together they will produce hydrogen with renewable energy, use the gas network to transport it, and then supply it to industrial plants, while also interlinking different material cycles within the existing infrastructure.

In the first phase a 30-MW electrolyser powered by offshore wind will be installed to produce hydrogen. This is expected to take five years. The facility will bring insight into the operation, maintenance, control and grid compatibility of the system. It will be built by H2 Westkueste GmbH, a joint venture established by EDF Deutschland, Ørsted and Raffinerie Heide....MORE

"Ørsted Bets Hydrogen Is Key to Climate Goals"

Interesting. Ørsted is one of the big dogs of the Danish wind biz.
From Bloomberg via gCaptain:

One of the world’s biggest developers of offshore wind farms thinks its massive turbines could be key to the production of hydrogen in a greener way and ultimately, stemming climate change.

Over the past decade, offshore wind has pushed from a frontier technology to a multi-billion-dollar industry that provides green power cheap enough to compete with fossil fuels. Orsted A/S, a Danish company, anticipates that the scale and efficiency of wind farms at sea can play a crucial role to supply heavy industry with green hydrogen.

Hydrogen is important because it’s one of the few fuels that can burn hot enough to make steel and cement, two of the most polluting industries. At the moment, most hydrogen is derived from natural gas and causes greenhouse gas emissions. Getting the element from electrolysis driven by wind farms would make it a zero-emissions fuel, since no carbon dioxide comes with hydrogen in the combustion process. As long as these heavy industries rely on polluting fossil fuels, it may be impossible to achieve the goals in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change

“You cannot do it without hydrogen,” Anders Nordstrom, head of hydrogen at Orsted, said in an interview. “Everything that can be electrified, you should electrify, but that leaves a substantial part of de-carbonization where hydrogen is the second-best option because electricity isn’t feasible.”

Manufacturing is responsible for about 10% of global carbon dioxide emissions because it relies on high-temperature furnaces that mostly run on fossil fuels such as coal and oil. Some processes like cement require chemical reactions that throw off CO2 in addition to the emissions from burning fuels.

Hydrogen can be used as an alternative fuel in many of those processes. The issue is getting the gas without making more CO2.

Machines known as electrolyzers can create the hydrogen by splitting it out of water molecules. And when it burns, hydrogen leaves only water vapor behind. If the whole process is powered by a wind farm, no emissions are involved.

To Orsted, it makes sense to pair offshore wind farms with hydrogen electrolyzers. Wind turbines are bigger and run more often when they’re sited at sea instead of on land — often enough that they sometimes spin when the grid can’t absorb more power.

Hydrogen factories could take that power and turn it into a gas. That would deliver another benefit in that they can store that energy for use later — something that’s more difficult when the energy comes in the form of electricity....MORE

"The first US offshore wind auction in the Gulf of Mexico was a dud"

From the usually ebullient Electrek, August 29:

There was only one bid in the first-ever US offshore wind auction in the Gulf of Mexico today – here’s why it was a bit of a washout.

The three lease areas off Texas and Louisiana that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) auctioned today have the potential to generate around 3.7 gigawatts (GW) of clean power for almost 1.3 million households – but only one lease area had a single bid.

Germany’s RWE, one of the world’s largest offshore wind developers, won the rights to the 102,480-acre Lake Charles, Louisiana, offshore wind lease area with a winning bid of $5.6 million. The BOEM says that the Lake Charles lease area has the potential to generate 1.24 GW of offshore wind energy capacity and power nearly 435,400 homes with renewable energy....

....MUCH MORE

Although we didn't focus on it in August 30's "Ørsted, "World's Largest Offshore Wind Farm-Maker Crashes Most On Record After Catastrophic Results"", during that same conference call Ørsted said it considered abandoning their big offshore New Jersey wind farm but will stick with it, for now.

Wind Power Biggie Ørsted to Power Yara Green Ammonia Plant

 From Bloomberg via gCaptain:

Orsted Offshore Wind Farm to Power Green Ammonia Plant for Fertilizer

Orsted A/S, the world’s biggest developer of offshore wind farms, plans to use its latest Dutch installation to make  for use in fertilizer.

The Danish utility will work with the fertilizer giant Yara International ASA to use wind power to create hydrogen and turn it into ammonia. The project could produce about 75,000 tons of green ammonia a year, cutting Yara’s carbon footprint.

But as with most new green projects, the companies said they’ll need government support to get off the ground.

Green ammonia is seen as an option to store hydrogen or use it for industrial applications and transportation. Chemical fertilizers use ammonia, made up of nitrogen and hydrogen. The most common and cheapest way of making hydrogen today emits carbon dioxide.

The proposed plant in the Netherlands would use 100 megawatts of electrolyzers — machines powered by electricity that separate the hydrogen atoms in water from the oxygen. Orsted is currently building a 752-megawatt wind farm off the Dutch coast that could provide the facility with green power....

....MORE

"King Charles’ Crown Estate to invest £400m in offshore wind supply chain"

THE stately Turbines of England,
   How beautiful they stand!
Amidst their tall ancestral trees,
   O'er all the pleasant land.
The deer across their greensward bound
   Thro' shade and sunny gleam,
And the swan glides past them with the sound
   Of some rejoicing stream. 

(of revenue)

—Felicia Browne Hemans
Blackwoods Magazine April, 1827

I wish Noel Coward were around to comment:

The stately homes of England,

How beautiful they stand,

To prove the upper classes

Have still the upper hand.

From CityAM, June 17:

King Charles III’s property firm is to invest up to £400m of fresh capital into the UK’s offshore wind supply chain, it has been announced.

The Crown Estate has earmarked £350m for investment into the construction of a new port and supply chain infrastructure it said would support “accelerated delivery of UK offshore wind projects.”

The other £50m will support “early-stage project development,” delivered via a succession of funding rounds.

Investment from The Crown Estate, which manages a £16bn portfolio of land and owns the UK’s seabed, is a big boost for the government as it looks to decarbonise the grid by 2030.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has suffered a succession of blows in recent months, including the abrupt termination of Ørsted’s contract at Hornsea 4, one of Britain’s biggest-ever offshore wind farms if completed....

....MUCH MORE

The first time we used the Hemans pastiche was in 2011's "Noblesse Oblige: "The aristocrats cashing in on Britain's wind farm subsidies"" 
Okay, it's not Oblige, it's more like Noblesse, Score!!!

Related:

February 2008 -  Queen Elizabeth: Offshore wind farms to generate £100m windfall for Crown Estate 

April 2023 -  Charles III, King Of England, Had Gas

August 2023 - How King Charles III Came To Own The Seabed

And not really related but possibly of interest, July 2021: 

Who Owns England: "The Marquesses and their 100,000 acres" 

There is only one Marquess in the English Peerage the rest are either in the Peerage of the U.K or the Peerage of Great Britain. I was always under the assumption that the Marquesses were all subsidiary titles for Dukes but apparently not. Be that as it may be, they all seem to have nice houses....

I would have made a good marquess.

But the closest I could have gotten was Count [Earl]; unfortunately the lack of primogeniture, and descent in the female line put the kibosh on that career move.

"Vineyard Wind, country's first large-scale offshore wind project, finishes construction"

From WBUR-Boston, March 14:

After years of starts and stops, workers installed the final blades on the last turbine Friday evening to complete Vineyard Wind, the country's first large-scale offshore wind project.

It will be at least several weeks until all 62 turbines in the wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts are fully up and running, generating power for the New England grid. Still, the end of construction is a milestone for the project and the U.S. offshore wind industry, which has faced years of economic and political headwinds.

Gov. Maura Healey said she was "thrilled" to learn construction was complete, noting that the project is expected to save Massachusetts ratepayers $1.4 billion over the first 20 years of operation.

"The affordable, homegrown power it delivers to Massachusetts residents and businesses will bring costs down as President Trump throws global markets into disarray," she said in a statement.

As the first large offshore wind project to go through the cumbersome federal permitting process, all eyes have been on Vineyard Wind from the beginning. Whether it would reach this point was not a sure bet.

Construction has been pushed back several times, beginning in 2019 under the first Trump administration. In 2024 a turbine blade snapped and debris washed up on the shores of Nantucket, causing months of delay. And just three months ago, when the project was 95% complete, the U.S. Interior Department issued a stop-work order.

But with a stretch of good weather offshore, the developers behind the $4.5 billion project managed to get over the finish line.

The next step is what's called commissioning — the complicated process of connecting turbines to the grid and ensuring they work properly. In an earnings call earlier this week, Iberdrola, the parent company of Avangrid, one of the project's co-developers, told investors that 52 of the 62 turbines are authorized for operation.

A spokesperson for Vineyard Wind declined to say exactly how many turbines are generating power, but in late January, the company said in court documents that 44 turbines were operational. When fully online, the wind farm will be capable of producing 800 megawatts, enough electricity to power about 400,000 homes in the region.

As Vineyard Wind finished construction Friday evening, the wind developer Ørsted announced that some of its turbines in the Revolution Wind project near Rhode Island were sending power to the grid for the first time. That project is nearly complete as well, and will eventually be capable of powering up to 350,000 homes....

....MUCH MORE