Ørsted completes acquisition of US onshore wind group LCE

Denmark’s Ørsted A/S (CPH:ORSTED) said on Monday it has completed the acquisition of US onshore wind developer Lincoln Clean Energy (LCE) and will run in under a new onshore wind unit.

The acquired entity, based in Chicago, owns a portfolio of 513 MW of recently commissioned assets, mostly onshore wind, with 10 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV), and also has 300 MW of projects under construction. As announced in August, Ørsted purchased LCE from global infrastructure investment manager I Squared Capital in an effort to expand its business into new markets and technologies, apart from offshore wind.

In addition to the already commissioned and under-construction capacity, LCE has more than 1.5 GW of development projects in the pipeline, expected to be completed by 2022. It operates through offices in Chicago and Austin.

The Danish offshore wind developer said it will set up a new business division, called Onshore Wind, and LCE will be its only activity. It will also change the names of its existing business units to reflect its decision to expand into onshore wind. Thus, the former Wind Power division will now be called Offshore Wind, the Bioenergy & Thermal Power unit will be renamed Bioenergy and the former Distribution & Customer Solutions will now become Customer Solutions.

The Onshore Wind business will be led by Ole Kjems Sorensen, executive vice president and member of the executive committee, who will also lead Ørsted’s corporate development and mergers and acquisitions activities. The Danish group noted that LCE’s acquisition and the undertaken changes will not affect its 2018 financial outlook and expected investment level.

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