The Danish company “Orsted” announced the sale of its shares in 4 onshore wind farms in the United States. The total capacity of the farms reached about 957 megawatts, and they are located in the American states of Illinois, Texas and Kansas. The value of the deal is about 300 million dollars, and it is considered the first deal with an infrastructure investment company. The Stonepeak asset is the second in Orsted’s phased sale programme.

Orsted’s shares, listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange, rose by about 1.15% during trading, and this came on Wednesday, March 13, 2024, and reached about 352.50 Danish kroner, and the agreement allows Orsted to recycle capital in order to support its business plan and future renewable energy projects of value. Stonic will receive 80% of the cash distributions for the four projects, while Orsted will operate the assets.

Orsted operates with a unilateral purchase option contract for the wind farms that it sold to Stonepeak, which can be executed in specific circumstances after completing the deal. The purchase option is considered a contract that allows its holder to purchase an option or asset during a specific period at a specific price, in addition to an amount of about $300 million, the value of the deal, and Orsted collected Previously, tax revenues from wind farms amounted to about $700 million.

Orsted’s portfolio includes onshore wind and solar energy projects, in addition to battery storage under construction and in operation, with a production capacity of more than 6 gigawatts within the United States. The company announced that the deal is consistent with the approach of disposing of ownership stakes in existing projects in order to recycle and deploy capital in the country. Future projects of value, and the company allows Orsted to retain operating decision-making and long-term options within the projects, and Orsted concluded the first deals of this type during October 2022 with the private equity firm Energy Capital Partners to sell 50% of its stake in 3 onshore wind farms and an energy project. Solar system in the United States worth $410 million.

Anthony Borica, CEO of Stonepeak, stated the continued need to develop efficient infrastructure facilities and the ability to enhance the energy transition, given that onshore wind continues to play a major role in achieving this goal.

Wind project developers in America are suffering from high costs and inflation, in addition to increasing interest rates and supply chain disruptions. The year 2023 witnessed a decrease in the amount of electricity generated from wind energy by 1% to reach 430.2 billion kilowatts per hour, down from 434 billion kilowatts per hour in 2022.

This comes in conjunction with the slowdown in new capacity additions to its lowest level in 10 years, but it is expected that the share of electricity generated from wind will rise again to about 460 billion kilowatts per hour during the year 2024, and the share of wind will continue to rise during the year 2025 to reach about 478 billion kilowatts per hour. .

The Energy Research Company issued an increase in cumulative wind energy installations in the United States of America by more than 50%, reaching more than 90 gigawatts during the coming period, and wind energy installations will reach 10.9 gigawatts during the current year 2024, rising to about 15.3 gigawatts during the year 2025, reaching about 18.1 gigawatts during the year. 2026, and the number of installations will increase to about 19.3 gigawatts during the year 2027 and then stabilize at 19 gigawatts during the year 2028.