Ørsted A/S is the world's largest offshore wind developer and operator by installed capacity, with approximately 9 gigawatts of operating offshore wind farms across Europe and the Americas. The company was founded in 1972 as Dansk Naturgas A/S and later merged with other state-owned Danish energy assets to become DONG Energy (Danish Oil and Natural Gas). In 2017, following a strategic pivot away from fossil fuels and a successful IPO on the Nasdaq Copenhagen exchange, the company rebranded as Ørsted, named after the Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted, who discovered electromagnetism.
The Danish state remains the controlling shareholder, holding approximately 50.1% of Ørsted through the Ministry of Finance, aligning the company's long-term objectives with Denmark's national climate goals; the state reaffirmed that stake by taking up its full allocation in the 2025 rights issue. Ørsted is led by CEO Rasmus Errboe, who took over on February 1, 2025 following the departure of Mads Nipper amid significant financial pressures related to the U.S. offshore wind market. Trond Westlie has served as group chief financial officer since April 2024.
Ørsted's transformation from an integrated oil, gas, and coal utility into a nearly pure-play renewable energy company is one of the most dramatic corporate pivots in energy history. The company divested its upstream oil and gas business to INEOS in 2017 and sold its legacy Danish power generation assets, including coal and biomass plants, in subsequent years. By 2025, roughly 99% of the company's power generation came from renewable sources. Ørsted is frequently cited as the world's most sustainable energy company by indices including the Corporate Knights Global 100.
Ørsted's offshore wind business encompasses the development, construction, ownership, and operation of offshore wind farms, with more than 10 GW in operation. Its portfolio includes landmark projects such as Hornsea One (1.2 GW) and Hornsea Two (1.3 GW) in the UK, the world's largest offshore wind farms at the time of their commissioning, as well as Borkum Riffgrund, Anholt, and projects in the United States, Taiwan, and Germany. The 2.9 GW Hornsea Three is under construction, with first export power expected in 2026; Ørsted sold a 50% stake in it to Apollo for about £4.5 billion in December 2025. The company employs a Farm-Down strategy, selling equity stakes in operating or near-operating wind farms to institutional investors to recycle capital, reduce balance-sheet debt, and realize valuations above book.
Ørsted's onshore segment covers utility-scale onshore wind and solar PV, largely in the United States. As part of its balance-sheet repair, Ørsted is exiting much of this business: it sold its European onshore renewables platform to Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners for about €1.44 billion in early 2026, and in October 2025 it carved out the U.S. onshore business as a standalone unit while exploring a sale. The company continues to sign Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with large corporate off-takers, including data-center operators seeking renewable supply.
Ørsted retains a small portfolio of bioenergy and combined heat and power (CHP) assets in Denmark, primarily serving district heating networks. This segment is a legacy of the company's prior identity as an integrated Danish utility and is expected to diminish over time as assets reach end of life or are divested. The company had pursued green hydrogen and Power-to-X, but scaled back those ambitions, terminating the FlagshipONE e-methanol project in Sweden in August 2024.
Ørsted's FY2025 results showed a company stabilizing after two turbulent years. Revenue rose about 3% to DKK 73.2 billion. EBITDA excluding new partnership agreements and cancellation fees was DKK 25.1 billion, within the guided DKK 24 to 27 billion range (DKK 22.4 billion including those items). The company returned to a net profit of DKK 3.2 billion, up from roughly break-even in 2024, and net debt stood at DKK 19.0 billion. Results still absorbed after-tax impairments of about DKK 2.9 billion, including the charge from discontinuing Hornsea 4. For 2026, Ørsted guides to EBITDA above DKK 28 billion and gross investment of DKK 50 to 55 billion.
FY2023 was a watershed year in a negative sense: Ørsted announced impairments of approximately DKK 28 billion related primarily to its U.S. offshore wind portfolio. Projects including Ocean Wind 1 and 2 (New Jersey), Skipjack (Maryland), and the early-stage Sunrise Wind were cancelled or written down as the combination of rising interest rates, supply chain cost inflation, and an inability to renegotiate power purchase agreements with state utilities rendered them economically unviable. The write-downs wiped out the company's net income and triggered a sharp share price decline, with ORSTED falling more than 60% from its 2021 highs by the end of 2023.
The decisive step came in 2025. After abandoning a planned sale of half the Sunrise Wind project in the U.S., Ørsted announced a roughly DKK 60 billion rights issue on August 11, 2025, ultimately raising DKK 59.56 billion at about 99.3% subscription and completing in early November; the Danish state took up its full 50.1% allocation, and the proceeds fund full ownership of Sunrise Wind and recapitalize the balance sheet. Ørsted paired the raise with a divestment program of roughly DKK 46 billion, including the 50% sale of Hornsea 3 to Apollo, the European onshore business to Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, and 55% of Taiwan's Greater Changhua 2 to Cathay. Even so, S&P cut Ørsted to BBB- and Moody's to Baa2 in 2025, and the company suspended its dividend for 2024 and 2025, intending to reinstate it for 2026.
Under CEO Rasmus Errboe, Ørsted has articulated a strategy centered on restoring financial credibility, completing its 8.1 GW in-construction portfolio through 2027, and selectively taking on new commitments as project economics recover. As part of the reset, the company discontinued its previous 2030 renewable capacity target in February 2025 and slimmed its investment program. Sanctioning new projects depends heavily on interest rates, power prices, supply chain costs, and regulatory support in target markets, all of which deteriorated sharply in 2022 and 2023 and have only partially recovered.
The UK remains Ørsted's most important market. The country has one of the world's most mature offshore wind regulatory regimes, with Contracts for Difference (CfDs) providing revenue certainty over 15-year periods. Ørsted's Hornsea franchise, comprising Hornsea One and Two in operation and the 2.9 GW Hornsea Three under construction, keeps it a leading operator in UK waters. The larger Hornsea Four, however, was discontinued in its current form in May 2025 as costs, interest rates, and execution risk mounted; Ørsted will not deliver it under the CfD it won in 2024 and did not re-bid it in the following allocation round, though it retains the seabed rights, grid connection, and planning consent to evaluate future development. Taiwan is the key Asian market, where Ørsted established an early-mover position with the Greater Changhua projects, though it has since sold down part of that exposure.
The U.S. market remains consequential despite the painful write-downs, and is now Ørsted's largest source of policy risk. Revolution Wind, a 704 MW project off Connecticut and Rhode Island held in a 50/50 joint venture with Skyborn, was about 87% complete when the federal government issued a stop-work order in August 2025; after a court injunction let work resume, a second suspension followed in December 2025 and a further injunction on January 12, 2026 again allowed construction to continue, with completion targeted for 2026. Sunrise Wind, the 924 MW New York project Ørsted now owns fully after buying out Eversource, is being self-funded through the rights issue, with commissioning targeted for the second half of 2027. Ørsted has scaled back its earlier green-hydrogen ambitions rather than expanding them.
The U.S. offshore wind market remains the single largest risk factor for Ørsted. The Trump administration's actions against offshore wind, including a halt to new federal leasing and, in 2025, stop-work and suspension orders against projects already under construction, moved the risk from permitting delays to active interference. Ørsted's Revolution Wind was suspended twice and restarted twice by court injunction between August 2025 and January 2026, and a December 2025 order paused five projects across New England, New York, and Virginia. The litigation was unresolved as of mid-2026, and the outcome bears directly on both Revolution Wind and the fully owned Sunrise Wind.
Interest rate sensitivity is a structural feature of Ørsted's business model. Offshore wind projects are capital-intensive, long-duration assets whose economics are highly sensitive to the discount rate used to value future cash flows. The 2022 and 2023 rate environment effectively repriced the entire sector. While rates have eased somewhat, they remain above the levels at which many projects were originally underwritten, and the 2025 rights issue and divestment program were the company's response to the resulting balance-sheet strain.
On the upside, Ørsted's installed base of more than 10 GW of operating offshore wind farms generates stable, largely contracted cash flows, though the dividend was suspended for 2024 and 2025 while the balance sheet was repaired, with reinstatement intended for 2026. The company's technological leadership, accumulated over three decades of offshore wind development starting with Vindeby in 1991 (the world's first offshore wind farm), gives it genuine know-how advantages in a technically complex industry. And the structural demand for offshore wind in Europe, driven by energy security imperatives following the Ukraine conflict and decarbonization mandates, remains strong even as the U.S. market falters.
This profile was compiled from publicly available information including:
Ørsted Investor Relations — Annual reports, interim results, and capital markets presentations.
Ørsted corporate website — Project portfolio, sustainability reporting, and company overview.
FY2025 annual report (February 6, 2026); the 2025 rights-issue announcements; the Hornsea 4 discontinuation and Hornsea 3 divestment announcements; Revolution Wind court filings and the January 2026 injunction; the CEO appointment announcement; and 2025 credit-rating actions by S&P and Moody's.
This profile is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation, or a solicitation to buy or sell any security.