Ørsted to grow in solar, storage with buy of Coronal subsidiary

Ørsted A/S (CPH:ORSTED) will expand its involvement in the solar and storage sectors with the acquisition of a unit of US renewable power producer Coronal Energy, the Danish energy company announced today on releasing first-quarter results.

The target has a “significant pipeline of solar and storage projects” is all the company said.

Ørsted currently has 8,303 MW of renewable capacity, including 5,602 MW of offshore wind, 803 MW of onshore wind and just 10 MW of solar power. It expects to reach final investment decision (FID) this year on the 350-MW Permian solar photovoltaic (PV) complex in the US. It has signed a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) with US oil and gas major ExxonMobil Corp (NYSE:XOM) for a portion of the park’s output.

The company’s profit from continuing operations for the first quarter of 2019 amounted to DKK 2.64 billion (USD 396.4m/EUR 354m), down 13% year-on-year. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were down by 7%, but Ørsted reported a 13% increase in offshore and onshore wind earnings.

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