Ørsted has sold a 25.4% stake in the West of Duddon Sands offshore wind farm to funds managed by Schroders Greencoat for £456.1 million. The transaction closed on 30 April.

Located 14km off the west coast, West of Duddon Sands has been operating since 2014 and has a capacity of 389 MW.

Schroders Greencoat owns renewable infrastructure asset investments with a combined net generating capacity of over 7GW and has £9.6 billion of assets under management. It is already a partner on four Ørsted offshore wind farms: Walney, Burbo Bank Extension, Hornsea 1 and Borkum Riffgrund 1.

Ørsted will retain a 25.5%, pro-rata consolidated interest in West of Duddon Sands and will remain the operator under the existing operations and maintenance agreement.

Trond Westlie, Group CFO of Ørsted, said: “Farm-downs and partnerships are an integral part of Ørsted’s business model, and we’re pleased to expand our partnership with Schroders Greencoat, who has a proven track record in managing renewable energy infrastructure assets and is a highly valued partner to Ørsted. With today’s announcement we continue to deliver on our farm-down programme with a transaction that meets our strategic objectives for partnerships and divestments in terms of value creation, risk diversification, and capital recycling.”
Ørsted currently operates more than 5GW of offshore wind capacity and has an additional 5GW under construction or in development, including the Hornsea 3 and Hornsea 4 projects, both of which have secured CfDs.