Deepwater Wind Sold To Major Danish Wind Energy Company

Offshore wind farm development company Deepwater Wind announced on Monday that it has been purchased by Danish wind energy giant Orsted for $510 million.

Deepwater Wind CEO Jeffrey Grybowski said on Monday that the deal will allow Deepwater to press forward with the three wind farms it already has power purchase agreements for and expand its sights for the future significantly.

"It really allows us to very aggressively pursue our long-term vision here: building multiple wind farms along the Eastern Seaboard," Mr. Grybowski said. "Orsted has 1,200 turbines spinning already, so they bring deep expertise in the construction and planning of offshore wind farms."

Orsted is the world’s largest offshore wind farm developer. It constructed the first major offshore wind farm off Sweden in 1991, has built 10 others since then and has a two-phase project in the works that will be the largest offshore wind farm development in the world when completed off the coast of Yorkshire, England.

But the company has yet to win a power purchase bid for a wind farm project in the United States, despite owning federal leases on two vast swaths of ocean off Massachusetts and New Jersey capable of hosting several hundred turbines.

Deepwater Wind, on the other hand, has already constructed an offshore wind farm, off Block Island, and has inked contracts for three more, including the agreement with the Long Island Power Authority to sell 90 megawatts of power from the South Fork Wind Farm.

Deepwater Wind has been frequently noted for being adept at using political connections and procedural savvy to navigate the labyrinthine regulatory networks in the United States, and energy industry observers have painted the deal as Orsted securing newly solid footing for projects in the fledgling U.S. offshore wind market.

"I don't think it's a stretch to say that we have the strongest offshore wind team in American today," Mr. Grybowski said. "We have a very deep pool of talent that knows how to deal with the complicated regulatory and permitting requirements here in the U.S. that are different than in Europe."

Deepwater Wind is currently owned by D.E. Shaw Group, a New York City-based hedge fund that manages more than $51 billion in investments. The sale is expected to close by the end of the year, but must still be reviewed and approved by U.S. government regulators.

If the take-over passes regulatory muster and closes, Deepwater Wind will merge with Orsted's current U.S. offshore wind division to become a new entity: Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind. Mr. Grybowski said that all of Deepwater's current employees will be joining the new company.

Deepwater built the first offshore wind farm in the United States—the five turbines 3 miles off Block Island, which are visible from Montauk on clear days. The company has begun filing applications to state and federal agencies for permission to construct 15 more turbines about 15 miles farther offshore, a little more than 30 miles from Montauk, which will connect to the South Fork via an undersea cable coming ashore in Wainscott.

Deepwater has also won contracts to deliver power from two other planned wind farms: a 15-turbine project 20 miles off Maryland, and a 75-turbine project that will deliver power to Connecticut and Rhode Island from the same area of ocean as the South Fork Wind Farm.

The new combined company will control three offshore wind lease areas capable of supporting approximately 1,000 turbines and producing 8 gigawatts of electricity, enough energy to power about four million homes, according to industry estimates.

East Hampton Town has pledged to give Deepwater Wind an easement to run the South Fork Wind Farm power cable under town roads to the LIPA substation in Cove Hollow. The East Hampton Town Trustees have not yet agreed to give the company a lease for the ocean beach the cable would run beneath, but have hired an attorney to work with the company on the details of a lease agreement that might assuage concerns the Trustees have voiced about potential negative impacts of the cable on commercial fishing.