Ørsted – formerly Dong Energy – has sold a 50 per cent stake in the Walney Extension offshore wind farm to two Danish pension funds, it has announced.
The 659 MW project in the Irish Sea is under construction and will be the largest offshore wind farm in the world once fully commissioned. PKA and PFA will pay around £2 billion for the 50 per cent stake, which they will split equally.
Ørsted said it was “pleased” that its offshore wind assets continued to be attractive to institutional investors. It is already partnered with PKA on three other offshore wind farms.
The Walney Extension is expected to be fully commissioned in the second half of 2018. It will consist of 40 MHI Vestas V164-8.0MW machines and 47 Siemens Gamesa SWT-7.0MW-154 turbines installed around 19 km from the Walney Island coast in Cumbria, north-west England.
Ørsted will construct the windfarm under a full-scope engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract. Ørsted will also provide long-term operations and maintenance services from its base in Barrow-in-Furness and provide a route to market for the power generation from Walney.
