Danish energy supplier Ørsted today further extended its wind power portfolio, snapping up the 389MW UK and Irish onshore wind assets of Brookfield Renewables for €571 million (£496 million).
Included in Ørsted’s purchase for the Irish-incorporated entity, are a further 149MW of farms in ‘advanced development’, plus a pipeline of onshore potential which the parties size at 1 GW.
The Danes made their debut in international onshore wind in 2018. Capacities of their US venture, either operating or under construction, now stand at 4 GW, placing them in the top five US builders of onshore wind projects.
Ørsted group president Mads Nipper said, “The European market for onshore wind power is expected to grow significantly in the coming years.
“With the acquisition of BRI, we get a strong platform that expands our presence in onshore renewables to Europe, allowing us to continue our successful expansion of our onshore renewables business.
Declan Flanagan, CEO of Ørsted’s onshore business, hailed the deal’s strong operational fit, and the very complementary business cultures shared by the parties.
“We’ve learned that, like Ørsted, the BRI team is ambitious, prioritise safety and quality, and strive to be a good neighbour in the communities they operate in”, Flanagan commented.
BRI employs 70 people at offices in Cork and Edinburgh. Ørsted employs 6,200 worldwide. Integration of BRI is not expected to result in redundancies
At 12:30 today Ørsted’s share price on the LSE was unchanged.
