Ørsted Acquires Deepwater Wind in a $510M Deal

By Anca Gagiuc

Ørsted has entered into an agreement with the D.E. Shaw Group to acquire Rhode Island-based Deepwater Wind for $510 million. The two companies’ offshore wind assets and organizations will be merged into what’s to become the leading U.S. offshore wind platform with the most significant geographic coverage and the largest pipeline of development activity.

The transaction is subject to clearance by the U.S. competition authorities and is expected to close by the end of 2018. Once finalized, the name of the organization will be Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind.

With their powers combined

Deepwater Wind, founded in 2007 and headquartered in Providence, R.I., has its portfolio of projects spread along the U.S. East Coast, with a total potential capacity of approximately 3.3 gigawatts comprising: Block Island—the only operational offshore wind farm in the U.S. with a capacity of 30 megawatts; three offshore wind development projects in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland and New York totaling 810 megawatts of capacity with long-term revenue contracts in place or pending finalization; and approximately 2.5 gigawatts of offshore wind development across three Bureau of Ocean Energy Management lease areas in Massachusetts and Delaware. Of these 2.5 gigawatts, 1.2 gigawatts are developed through an equal joint venture with New Jersey’s Public Service Enterprise Group.

Ørsted’s current U.S. offshore wind portfolio has a total capacity of about 5.5 gigawatts comprising: development rights for up to 2 gigawatts at the Bay State Wind site off the coast of Massachusetts, owned in a joint venture with Eversource, development rights for up to 3.5 gigawatts at the Ocean Wind site off the coast of New Jersey  and, in Virginia, two 6-megawatt 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 2 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity.

“With this transaction, we’re creating the No. 1 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 U.S., and Ørsted’s unparalleled track-record in engineering, constructing, and operating large-scale offshore wind farms,” said Martin Neubert, CEO of offshore wind at Ørsted, in a prepared statement.

Image courtesy of Ørsted