By David Wojick
The world’s largest offshore wind developer, backed by the government of Denmark, is on a deliberate collision course with the Trump Administration.
The battleground is Sunrise Wind, a 924 megawatt (MW) offshore wind project located roughly 30 miles east of Long Island’s Montauk Point. Orsted just raised almost $10 billion, two-thirds of which is reportedly aimed at building Sunrise.
Sunrise has all its federal permits, but offshore construction has yet to begin, or, as the industry puts it, there is no “steel in the water.” The Trump administration has vowed to stop all offshore wind projects that are not already under construction, so Sunrise must be in the federal crosshairs.
One would think Orsted would simply hold off on Sunrise until Trump leaves, but their financial condition looks perilous, so they likely need Sunrise to survive. This makes the looming battle very interesting.
Even more interesting is that Orsted’s majority shareholder is the Government of Denmark. In a very real sense, this is two national governments facing off.
The fundraising exemplifies Orsted’s distress. They basically sold their existing stockholders a bunch of new stock at a hefty discount. The Maritime Executive puts it this way:
“Danish offshore wind giant Orsted has raised $9.4 billion by selling new shares to existing stockholders at a steeply discounted price. With 99 percent of the new shares sold immediately and the remaining one percent swiftly sold to the public, the firm is now on firmer financial ground as it faces market headwinds and political risk in its core markets.”
“Orsted sold the shares at a price of 66 Danish kroner each ($10.30), a fraction of the stock’s publicly-traded price of about 120 kroner and a third of the most recent peak, 180 kroner, reached in early August. Just five years ago, when Orsted’s prospects seemed brighter and it was expanding into new markets, its stock briefly traded above 600 kroner.”
https://maritime-executive.com/article/orsted-raises-9-4-billion-in-heavily-discounted-rights-issue
That the Trump administration will try to stop Sunrise Wind before it begins offshore construction is almost certain. In fact, the administration is already trying to stop Orsted’s $6 billion Revolution Wind project which has a lot of steel in the water. Many of its monopiles have been driven, and a few turbines erected, so it is maybe 50% along (unlike much higher press reports).
The Revolution Wind stoppage is in litigation, which has been widely misreported. A federal judge issued a temporary injunction blocking the administration’s stop work order pending trial, but this has been wrongly reported as the judge having quashed the order.
The judge merely ruled that there was a reasonable possibility of Orsted winning the lawsuit against the stop-work order, so preorder status quo was maintained pending that action. This is standard equity law, so no judgement has been made in the actual stop work lawsuit. Orsted is rushing to get as much built as possible in the interim.
As my CFACT colleague Collister Johnson points out, the Revolution Wind case is basically a federal contract dispute and there is a separate court for hearing these. Thus, the Revolution Wind stoppage case is far from over; in fact, it has yet to begin.
See https://www.cfact.org/2025/09/28/revolution-wind-is-barking-up-the-wrong-tree/
If the administration can stop Revolution Wind, it can certainly stop Sunrise, which has no steel in the water. Revolution and Sunrise, while struggling, look to be Orsted’s best bet for new cash flow, so this issue may be critical for them.
What this $10 billion battle with the Trump administration means for Orsted’s Danish government owner remains to be seen.
Stay tuned as this international drama unfolds.
Denmark can have Revolution and Sunrise in exchange for Greenland. The art of the deal?
seems like a fair deal!
Let them build so long as US.Government Subsidies are removed and never apply. Can they build and operate it profitably without subsidy money?
Might they get a guaranteed profit from some states?
That would be up to the states but I wouldn’t guarantee a profit without the counter guarantee of minimum generation MWhs
It is a raw deal for ratepayers, taxpayers and increased US national debt.
Orsted to Raise Emergency Capital at 67% Discount as Green Energy Bubble Deflates
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/orsted-to-raise-emergency-capital-at-67-discount-as-green-energy
By Tyler Durban
.
Shares of Danish wind giant Orsted A/S slipped even further in European trading, after the offshore wind developer launched its rights offering, pricing shares at a steep discount to Friday’s close.
.
The move aims to raise what amounts to emergency capital to stabilize its balance sheet amid a broader downturn in the green-energy space and mounting uncertainty from the Trump administration’s freeze on one of its U.S. East Coast projects.
.
Here’s a breakdown of the rights offering (view documents):
.
“We’re raising capital to cover immediate financing needs from retaining full ownership of Sunrise Wind, to manage risks from regulatory uncertainty in the US, to strengthen Ørsted’s capital structure so we can deliver on our growth pipeline and long-term value creation,” Orsted’s CEO Rasmus Errboe wrote in a statement.
.
That sounds like a “motherhood” statement
Not a good deal for ratepayers. And think of the damage to the grid as well.
My crystal ball shows a lot of shorting in the near future….
Electrical or stocks?
It is salt water.
Pity there is no way to make the Democrats liable for their folly.
just keep them out of office for a few generations
Just who are these new investors who bought at a discount? Sounds like a losing proposition, Boy, I wonder what sales pitch was used to draw them in? The promise of federal subsidies? I see absolutely no return on investment in wind or solar. A sucker born every day.
Lots of ethical investment funds that are going to lose their clients money 🙂
Who they are is public
Major shareholders
Danish Government: Holds a majority stake of over 50%. Equinor Ventures: Owns approximately 10% of the shares. Andel A.M.B.A.: Holds approximately 5% of the shares.
Other shareholders
Danske Bank A/S (Investment Management): Holds a smaller percentage of shares.
Vanguard Developed Markets Index Admiral: Owns approximately 0.18% of shares.
iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF: Owns approximately 0.15% of shares.
Vanguard Instl Ttl Intl Stk Mkt Idx TrII: Owns approximately 0.15% of shares.
Nordea Invest Denmark Enhanced KL 2: Owns approximately 0.12% of shares.
I’m not sure but I think the two Vanguard funds, the iShares, and the Nordea are not where individual retail types have shares. I didn’t find an exact match for the Vanguard “TrII” but did find Trust II.
Anyway, my smallish Vanguard investments do not include either of those. Again, I think those with money in those four funds can probably afford to lose their money.
hopefully including some government pension funds? 🙂
NoooOOOOoooOOOooOOOoooOo! The shortfalls will be borrowed – and then some!
Perhaps if the government of Denmark would be willing to sell Greenland, a deal could be made?
No reason for any deal.
South Africa was on the road to built several nuclear power plants with the help of Russia.
Then the president got kicked and the plans were scrapped(usual pattern when a regime change or color revolution happens.Those politicians always cut ties with important partners deemed problematic by the west ).
I don’t think that the Russians got shit.
Why should the danish?
Remember when Haitian president Aristide claimed that his country discovered new oil reserves?
The Americans kicked him out of his job(like so many other leaders),
and the country turned total shithole(like so many other regime changed countries).
Remember Cyprus found huge oil and gas reserves – et voila,banking crisis and everything stopped.
Massive energy projects and discoveries seems to have the tendency to be stopped dead in their tracks in favor of the AGW -Agenda.
It seems that the US Government v. Orsted is actually the US Government v. Danish Government. What is the proper US court for such a dispute, if any. Is it simply a political dispute to be resolved by Government to Government resolution?
“this is two national governments facing off”
gee, I wonder who’ll win that battle 🙂
I suspect that the Danes don’t have enough geld.
They’ll spend that geld to buy Dems and American libs, or maybe buy a few “rent-a-mobs”.
Gomez Addams: “Good play, old man.”
Based on an offline discussion of this, Sunrise Wind does have construction underway in the ocean, not just its land facilities. The ultimate end for any project this far along that does get cancelled will be a major financial payout by the American taxpayers. This is a classic government taking. Stop any more projects from happening, certainly, but the ones that had steel in the water will deserve compensation for their losses.
‘This is a classic government taking. Stop any more projects from happening, certainly, but the ones that had steel in the water will deserve compensation for their losses.’
This will be interesting. I would agree with you that compensation would be in order IF these had really been arms-length, free market agreements that only went south because an otherwise disinterested government changed the rules based on new information. But in fact, these are mostly government-private arrangements that were only entered into because ideologically-driven governments could only guarantee profitability by coercively extracting subsidies from their hapless tax and/or rate payers. In the political sphere, history is replete with examples where successor regimes abrogated the obligations of their predecessors.
Of course, it was the Biden carrots dealing with the Danish cabbages. There is NO reason why the US Taxpayer has to lose any money. Trump simply needs to ‘lawfare’ them into an even larger loss.Oersted is not in good financial condition, EXCEPT that it is an arm of he Danish government which is completely unable to admit their blunders.
‘There is NO reason why the US Taxpayer has to lose any money.’
And there’s actually some real upside here IF private firms (and their labor unions) learn that, not only is engaging in crony capitalism fraught with peril, but so is NOT pushing back hard against junk science based regulations, e.g., Biden Vegetable’s attempt to back-door an EV mandate.
Time will tell. I don’t have stock in any of these companies (maybe in an ETF) so no skin in the game. I’m stuck with paying for Dominion Wind no matter what. If a Democratic president were doing this to hydrocarbon drillers off the coast, would any of you suddenly start worrying about it being a taking? Precedents matter, but this president will be long gone before this is settled.
If the U.S. governmental project permits were issued by a biased Presidential Administration in violation of U.S. environmental law and other lawful permitting regulations, those permits can be revoked by a subsequent Presidential Administration. IIRC, National Environmental Protection Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act and other laws’ provisions were violated in the permitting process. Those violations were ignored by the Biden Administration’s permitting agencies.
Sunrise Wind has some steel in the water. I was misled because none is mentioned on their website, just a lot of onshore work. Interesting secrecy.
They have a substation and at least 13 monopiles. Got this update from good people who monitor the Coast Guard notices of offshore activity. Thank you! Orsted can hide their offshore activity from the public but they do have to inform the Coast Guard which then issues safety notices to mariners.
The Trump-Orsted collision is still highly likely.
If, repeat if, offshore wind is so good, why are they not building it in home waters, such as off the coast of Greenland?
Where would that power go to be used? Have you seen the coast of Greenland?
Did not England lay down 1500 km of undersea power cables?
Simple. /s
Labrador Straight is only about 500 miles from Greenland coast to Canada coast.
/s
anyway…
Labrador and Baffin Island – not a whole lot different than Greenland. Labrador has a dispersed population of about 27,000. Baffin Island 13,000.
The Viking Link 475 mile power cable, Denmark to Lincolnshire, cost 1.7 billion pounds.
“Greenland Electricity Sources
Greenland’s electricity generation is primarily driven by renewable sources, with a significant portion coming from hydroelectric power. “
Greenland population 56,800
They have a lot of wind offshore in their actual home waters off the coast of Denmark. The excess power is sold to Norway, Sweden and Germany. Norway and Sweden use hydro to make up for lack of wind. Germany buys what they can where they can as they have shuttered many fossil facilities. No wonder their electricity is so expensive.
their financial condition looks perilous
And it most certainly is.
The Danish wind giant Ørsted plans to remove about 2,000 positions from its 8,000-strong workforce by the end of 2027 through a combination of redundancies, natural attrition and selling off parts of its business.
The company, which is headquartered in Fredericia, Denmark, and employs more than 1,200 workers in the UK, plans to make 500 redundancies by the end of the year, including 235 in its home market. – The Grauniad
The jig is largely up for wind. Hence the UK focus on solar panel infested prime farmland.
“selling off parts of its business”
That’s the part where all the money disappears in a confusion of MS Office screenshots.
“Of course the 7200-employee business that cleans the coffee machine in the admin kitchen is worth $100B!”
And they called the tune, so must pay the piper.
As long as people are building solar “farms” on real actual farmland, I don’t want to hear a word about food shortages or high prices for food.
Solar in the UK is an even worse proposition than Wind. Insane.
“Revolution and Sunrise … look to be Orsted’s best bet for new cash flow,”
All profit subsidies.
Ørsted used to make good money flogging off stakes in wind farms they had developed on wafer thin yields to desperate pension funds in the ZIRP era. That business model is gone, along with the supply of suckers. It had been an excellent source of cash to fund continued expansion of the Ponzi scheme and cover for over aggressive bids on projects..
It has now unwound, with the cancellation of Hornsea 4 leaving them with no possibility of new projects in the UK until at least AR8 which won’t go out for bidding until late next year. They have no projects that are reasonably advanced in tge planning pipeline, so even that us doubtful.
The outlook for them and several other wind farm developers remains bleak. Perhaps Trump could guarantee a supply of Neodymium for their turbine magnets in exchange for access to Greenland’s rare earth resources.
Orsted has been lucky in that the present hurricane season has been as quiet as any for many years.The company may not be so lucky if the Danish taxpayer figures out they are subsidizing wind turbines for the USA. Let’s hope Trump pushes this thrust home.
A powerful nor’easter just struck the east coast with powerful wind and waves causing much damage. Did any of the wind turbines suffer any damage?
Still what I expect will be the bane of Dominion Wind, a good 4-5 scale hurricane hitting the Virginia Capes head a big blow.
Not likely – VA and the rest of the mid-atlantic states appear to be geographically / historically safe from direct hurricane landfalls:
https://www.aol.com/news/hurricane-dead-zone-map-shows-100258521.html
Those are landfalls. The Dominion Wind farm looks to be 25-30 miles offshore. Hurricanes have struck the Virginia Capes, with one notable example being the Great Hurricane of 1821. That storm passed by the Capes around noon on September 3rd on its way north. There have also been other hurricanes that have affected the area, such as Hurricane Isabel in 2003, which caused widespread flooding and wind damage in the region.
Supposedly modern turbines are designed you survive winds of at least 75m/sec – about 170mph, well into Cat 5 territory.
If Sunrise and Revolution are so attractive to Denmark they should build them in Denmark. Then we in the US could more wisely spend our money on fossil fuel and nuclear power plants. It’s a win win.
Give Orsted all the treatment miners and pipeline companies have had the pleasure of dealing with from Dems across the country over the last 30 years.