One of world’s biggest windfarm developers to cut quarter of workforce | Wind power

One of the world’s largest wind farm developers will cut its workforce by a quarter over the next two years after a series of setbacks for the industry.

Danish wind energy giant Ørsted plans to cut around 2,000 jobs out of its 8,000 employees by the end of 2027, through a combination of layoffs, natural departures and the sale of part of its activities.

The Oslo-headquartered company, which employs more than 1,200 people in the UK, plans to make 500 redundancies by the end of the year, including 235 in its domestic market.

Ørsted boss Rasmus Errboe outlined his plan to downsize the company weeks after the Trump administration sent its stock price to an all-time low by ordering an immediate halt to work on a nearly completed wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island.

The developer, 50% owned by the Danish state, was forced to raise more than $9 billion in funding after political hostility in the United States made it harder to attract investors for its portfolio of projects.

The tool stop order was a blow to Ørsted, which earlier this year canceled plans to build one of the UK’s largest offshore wind farms, saying it no longer made economic sense due to high inflation and soaring costs in the industry’s global supply chain.

Although a US court last month allowed the company to resume work on the Revolution Wind project in Rhode Island, Ørsted intends to refocus its activities on the offshore wind sector in Europe – and some markets in Asia – once it completes its existing pipeline of global projects.

Rasmus Errboe, chief executive of Ørsted, said on Thursday that the group needed to be “more efficient and more flexible”.

He said: “This is a necessary consequence of our decision to concentrate our activities and the fact that we will finalize our extensive construction portfolio in the coming years – which is why we will need fewer employees. »

“At the same time, we want to create a more efficient and flexible organization and a more competitive Ørsted, ready to bid on new value-creating offshore wind projects,” he said.

The company’s market value has increased slightly since falling to an all-time low of 99.54 Danish crowns in August, but remains 53% lower than the same period last year. Its share price fell to 119 DKK (£13.8) on Thursday, down 2.6% from the day before.