Ørsted's blow to British energy

The Danish company pulling the plug on its giant windfarm project off the East Yorkshire coast sparks fears of a funeral wake for North Sea energy, writes

- Barney Macintyre

The choppy waters of the North Sea were never for the faint of heart. Last week came with warnings that taming its riches comes at a cost.

First, Ørsted, the Danish energy company, has "discontinued" a large offshore wind project off the coast of East Yorkshire, citing "adverse macroeconomic developments". Second, the oil producer Harbour Energy just axed 250 onshore jobs in Aberdeen.

"It's not happy times across the UK energy sector," said Fergus Mutch, a managing director at True North Advisors. The pulling of Ørsted's Hornsea 4 windfarm, the second largest in the UK, has blown a 2.4 gigawatt-sized hole - enough to power 1m homes a day - in the UK government's pledge to ramp up renewable capacity to 50GW by 2030.