Ørsted chief hails ‘great year’ defined by global expansion and strong financials

Mr Poulsen said the company achieved a “very satisfactory” operating profit and the green share of its heat and power generation increased to a new high of 86%.

Operating profit excluding new partnerships increased by 17% to DKK 17.5Bn, exceeding the company’s expectations at the beginning of the year as well as its most recent guidance of DKK 16-17Bn.

Earnings from offshore and onshore windfarms in operation increased by 30% to DKK 14.8Bn in 2019, driven by a ramp-up of generation from new offshore windfarms and a full year with contribution and ramp-up in Ørsted’s onshore wind business.

In 2019, the company reached significant milestones by winning two large-scale offshore projects in the US. It was awarded the 1.1-GW Ocean Wind project in New Jersey and 880-MW Sunrise Wind project in New York.

With these awards, Ørsted secured a US offshore wind portfolio with a total capacity of 2.9 GW to be completed towards 2024. In addition, the company has 4.5 GW of lease rights which can be developed for future offshore wind projects in the US.

In the UK, Ørsted commissioned Hornsea 1, the world’s largest offshore windfarm with a capacity of 1.218 GW and passed further milestones when it inaugurated phase two of Taiwan’s first-ever offshore windfarm, Formosa 1.

In 2019, Ørsted also took final investment decisions on a number of projects. In Taiwan it decided to build the 900-MW offshore windfarm Greater Changhua 1 & 2a, and to build a number of onshore windfarms in the US.

“We remain strongly committed to our vision of a world running entirely on green energy and will continue to work hard to help limit global warming and its impact on biodiversity and global living conditions for current and future generations,” Mr Poulsen concluded.

Excluding new partnerships, EBITDA in 2020 is expected to be DKK 15-16Bn compared to DKK 17.5Bn in 2019. The decline relates to earnings from existing offshore wind partnerships which amounted to DKK 3.8Bn in 2019 but are expected to be limited in 2020. Gross investments for 2020 are expected to amount to DKK 30-32Bn, reflecting a high level of construction activity related to offshore and onshore wind and solar PV projects.