Ørsted Pulls Plug on 2.4 GW Hornsea 4 Offshore Wind Project in UK

May 7, 2025, by Adnan Memija

Ørsted has discontinued the development of the UK’s Hornsea 4 offshore wind farm in its current form. The developer said the 2.4 GW project has faced rising supply chain costs, higher interest rates, and increased construction and delivery risks since the Contract for Difference (CfD) award in Allocation Round 6 (AR6) in September 2024.

In combination, these developments have increased the execution risk and deteriorated the value creation of the project, which led to Ørsted stopping further spending on the project at this time and terminating the project’s supply chain contracts, according to the Danish company. This means that the firm will not deliver Hornsea 4 under the CfD awarded in AR6.

“The adverse macroeconomic developments, continued supply chain challenges, and increased execution, market and operational risks have eroded the value creation,” said Rasmus Errboe, Group President and CEO of Ørsted.

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Planning & Permitting

Ørsted added that it will evaluate options for the future development of Hornsea 4 given the continuing seabed rights, grid connection agreement, and development consent order.

”We remain fully committed to being an important partner to the UK government to help them achieve their ambitious target for offshore wind build-out and appreciate the work they’ve done to deliver a clear framework to support offshore wind,” said Errboe.

“However, our capital allocation is based on a strict and value-focused approach, and after careful consideration, we’ve decided to discontinue the development of the Hornsea 4 project in its current form, well ahead of the planned Final Investment Decision later this year.”

As a consequence of the decision, Ørsted expects to sustain breakaway costs of DKK 3.5 billion (approximately EUR 470 million) to DKK 4.5 billion (about EUR 603 million). This includes a write-down of the offshore transmission assets and a provision for contract cancellation fees.

In addition, capitalised construction costs of approx. DKK 0.5 to 1 billion will be written down, said the company.

The Hornsea 4 offshore wind farm was granted consent by the Secretary of State for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero in July 2023.

In February 2025, the geotechnical survey works kicked off at the site located 69 kilometres off the Yorkshire coast.

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“I’m pleased with our operational performance and earnings in Q1 2025, and we remain fully focused on the execution of our four strategic priorities. During the quarter, we had solid operational earnings supporting our full-year guidance, and we continued to deliver on our farm-down programme by completing offshore and onshore farm-downs,” said Errboe.

“We also continued to deliver on our construction portfolio as we commissioned our offshore wind farm Gode Wind 3 in Germany, reaching more than 10 GW of installed offshore capacity.”

Operating profit (EBITDA) for the first quarter of 2025 amounted to DKK 8.9 billion (approx. EUR 1.2 billion) compared to DKK 7.5 billion (about EUR 1 billion) in the same period last year, according to the company.

Earnings from offshore sites amounted to DKK 7.7 billion, which was an increase of DKK 0.7 billion compared to the same period last year. The increase is said to be due to the ramp-up of generation at the 253 MW Gode Wind 3 offshore wind farm in Germany and higher availability. This was partly offset by significantly lower wind speeds in the quarter, added Ørsted.

Return on capital employed (ROCE) came in at 4.6 per cent. ROCE adjusted for impairment losses and cancellation fees in the first quarter of 2025 was 10.2 per cent.