This morning, Ørsted surprised the market with a dramatic announcement: the halt of any development concerning the Hornsea 4 offshore wind energy project, a mammoth 2.4 GW wind farm project developed by the Danish company in the North Sea. Hornsea 4, 69 km, at its closest point

off the Yorkshire Coast, boasted an area of 492 km2 where up to 180 wind turbines could be located. In July 2023, the UK government provided the required permits to develop the project and in September 2024 the same awarded a contract for difference (CfD) for 15 years with fixed

electricity price of £58.87/MWh, a price way higher than previous auctions. At the time, Rasmus Errboe, then-Deputy CEO and today the head of Ørsted, said the awarding of the contract was "an important milestone" and the company was looking forward to deliver "landmark projects,

which will supply renewable power at large scale to UK consumers and businesses and help the UK government achieve its target of quadrupling offshore wind capacity to 60 GW by 2030.” The UK company boasted the results of the allocation round 6 of offshore wind as a great success,

highlighting the positive shift for renewables with a Labour government ready to support operators of offshore wind projects through higher compensations by the means of CfDs. Less than a year later, the company announced that the project is not economically and financially

viable anymore. According to Errboe "Adverse macroeconomic developments, continued supply chain challenges, and increased execution, market and operational risks have eroded the value creation." This will cost the company between $533 million to $685 million and, even more

another loss of credibility. To review the hastily shifting geopolitics of the global energy transition ➡️The (Geo)political Dimensions of the Iberian Blackout 🫴https://rebrand.ly/RE2219 ➡️The Netherlands Go Back to Domestic (Offshore) Gas Production 🫴https://rebrand.ly/RE_2203