Ørsted has entered into an agreement with the D.E. Shaw Group to acquire a 100% equity interest in Rhode Island-based Deepwater Wind at a purchase price of USD 510 million. The two companies’ offshore wind assets and organizations will be merged into the leading US offshore wind platform with the most comprehensive geographic coverage and the largest pipeline of development capacity.

Photo credit: Deepwater Wind

Deepwater Wind, the leading US offshore wind developer, has built an attractive and geographically diverse portfolio of projects along the US East Coast. Deepwater Wind’s portfolio has a total potential capacity of approx. 3.3GW comprising:

• Block Island (30MW), the only operational offshore wind farm in the US
• Three offshore wind development projects in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland and New York totaling 810MW of capacity with long-term revenue contracts in place or pending finalization.
• Approximately 2.5GW of offshore wind development potential across three well-sited BOEM lease areas in Massachusetts and Delaware. Of these 2.5GW, 1.2GW is developed through an equal joint venture with PSEG, a leading New Jersey utility.

Ørsted’s current US offshore wind portfolio has a total capacity of approx. 5.5GW comprising:

• Development rights for up to 2GW at the Bay State Wind site off the coast of Massachusetts owned in a joint venture with Eversource.
• Development rights for up to 3.5GW at the Ocean Wind site off the coast of New Jersey.
• In Virginia, Ørsted will be constructing two 6MW wind turbine positions for phase one of Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project. Ørsted has exclusive rights with Dominion Energy to discuss the potential development of up to 2GW of offshore wind capacity.

With the combined organization and asset portfolio, Ørsted will be able to deliver clean energy to the seven states on the US East Coast that have already committed to build more than 10GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030.

Martin Neubert, CEO of Offshore Wind at Ørsted, says: “With this transaction we’re creating the number one offshore wind platform in North America, merging the best of two worlds: Deepwater Wind’s longstanding expertise in originating, developing and permitting offshore wind projects in the US, and Ørsted’s unparalleled track-record in engineering, constructing, and operating large-scale offshore wind farms. Today’s announcement consolidates Ørsted’s position as the global market leader in offshore wind with a strong foothold across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.”

“D.E. Shaw & Co. has been a dedicated owner of Deepwater Wind with a vision to pioneer offshore wind in the US and being at the innovative forefront of technology investment. We are excited to continue this journey and take the industry to the next level.”