Ørsted suffered a second impairment totalling 2.1bn kroner at its Revolution wind farm project near Martha’s Vineyard, off the US east coast. Construction delays at its onshore substation are the key cause.
Mr Nipper said: “Despite encouraging progress on our US offshore wind project, Revolution Wind, the construction of the onshore substation for the project has been delayed. This means that we have pushed the commercial operation date from 2025 into 2026, which led to an impairment.
“This is, of course, unsatisfactory.”
The company reported a pre-tax profit of 3.9bn kroner, up from 2.4bn kroner in the same period last year, and net profits of 931m kroner.
Tancrede Fulop, senior equity analyst at Morningstar said Ørsted had outperformed expectations especially in offshore wind, but the impairments “underscore the impact of project delays”.
Ørsted’s cuts follow similar moves by other energy majors in scaling back renewable energy projects.
Last month, Shell halted construction of a new plant in Rotterdam meant to convert waste into jet fuel and biodiesel, warning that market conditions were not right.