Ørsted halves stake in 862-MW wind, solar portfolio in US

Plum Creek wind park. Image by: Ørsted (www.us.orsted.com).

Denmark’s Ørsted A/S (CPH:ORSTED) has wrapped up a deal with private equity firm Energy Capital Partners to offload a 50% stake in an 862-MW onshore wind and solar portfolio in the US.

The divestment includes stakes in the Lincoln Land, Plum Creek and Willow Creek wind farms and the Muscle Shoals solar park, Ørsted said on Friday. The Danish renewables major has pocketed around USD 410 million (EUR 420.8m) from the transaction.

The deal was carried out in line with Ørsted’s strategy to farm down stakes in operational wind and solar assets and invest the capital in new projects. The company’s goal is to reach 50 GW of installed renewable energy capacity by 2030, expanding its portfolio from the current 5 GW in operation and under construction.

All assets are operated under power purchase agreements (PPAs) covering their output, or a portion of it. Specific details about each plant are given in the table.

Asset name	Capacity (MW)	Location	Commissioning	Power off-taker
Plum Creek Wind	230	Nebraska	June 2020	Vail Resorts, JM Smucker, Avery Dennison Corp
Willow Creek Wind	103	S Dakota	Sept 2020	North Iowa Municipal Electric Cooperative Association
Lincoln Land Wind	302	Illinois	Nov 2021	Meta Platforms (Facebook), McDonald's
Muscle Shoals Solar	227	Alabama	Sept 2021	Meta Platforms (Facebook), TVA

Energy Capital Partners has funded the acquisition through a fund-of-one partnership with US insurer Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA) and debt from Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG).

Ørsted said it will be the managing member of the partnership and will continue to provide asset management services for the quartet.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 1.026)

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