Windfarm developer pulls plug on major North Sea project

The world's biggest wind power developer has cancelled plans for one of the UK's largest offshore windfarms, in a significant blow to the government's green energy targets.

- Jillian Ambrose Joanna Partridge

The Danish wind power company Ørsted said the Hornsea 4 project no longer made economic sense because of soaring costs in the industry's global supply chain, after it won a government contract last year.

The decision to halt work on the project is a major blow to the government's plan to quadruple the UK's offshore wind capacity by the end of the decade to help create a virtually fossil-fuel-free electricity system.

The fourth phase of the huge Hornsea windfarm, located off the Yorkshire coast, was expected to use 180 giant turbines to generate enough green electricity to power the equivalent of 1m homes, or 2.4 gigawatts of power capacity.

Ørsted's CEO, Rasmus Errboe, said "the combination of increased supply chain costs, higher interest rates and increased execution risk" meant the project was unlikely to provide value for the company.

The project is the latest to be derailed by increased costs caused by higher inflation and interest rates, combined with problems in the global offshore wind supply chain, in recent years.