Brookfield, headed by former Bank of England governor Mark Carney, has acquired a 12.45% stake in four UK offshore wind farms owned by Ørsted for £1.75 billion ($2.3 billion).
This landmark deal includes the world’s largest offshore wind farm, Hornsea 2, located 55 miles off the Yorkshire coast with a capacity of 1.32 gigawatts, enough to power around 1.4 million homes.
The acquisition represents around 20% of Orsted’s £8.75bn disposal target for 2026, a strategy to cut costs and strengthen its balance sheet amid rising interest rates and supply chain challenges impacting the sector’s profitability. Ørsted operates more than 5 GW of offshore wind capacity, with an additional 5 GW under construction, including Hornsea 3 and 4. The latter projects recently secured contracts in the UK’s clean energy auction, whose budget the government boosted to £1.5 billion to drive renewable investment. .
Conor Teske, CEO of Brookfield Renewables, said the UK’s offshore wind assets are “an important part of the energy mix”, echoing Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ assertion that this deal represents “a major vote of confidence in the UK’s clean energy sector”. . Since Labour’s election victory in July, the government has prioritized net zero targets by 2050, increasing support for renewables and launching Great British Energy with £8.3bn of taxpayer support.
For Brookfield, this acquisition builds on its recent foray into the UK wind energy market following its purchase of Banks Renewables, renamed OnPath, which operates 11 wind farms. Onshore wind farms All over the UK. This represents Brookfield’s first UK offshore wind project, adding to its global wind capacity of 11.1 GW, more than half of which is in North America.