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Low wind speeds impact wind plant operators RWE and Orsted

Thursday, 12 August 2021

Earnings from Ørsted’s offshore and onshore wind farms in the first half of this year in operation were DKK 300m (~€40m) lower while earnings from offshore wind business  at RWE was also down by €126m to €459m, due to “much lower” wind volumes in Northern and central Europe compared to the previous year.

RWE’s core business, which includes renewables, reported a drop in adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in the first half of 2021 to €1.2bn. RWE said this result was due to the extreme cold snap in Texas that led to an earnings shortfall of around €400m, while additional losses were due to below-average wind conditions at onshore wind farm locations in Northern and Central Europe.

Meanwhile Ørsted has reported an increase in operating profit for the first half of 2021 in its half year results, despite the lower earnings from wind farm operations. The increased generation capacity from new wind farms in operation was more than offset by significantly lower wind speeds across Ørsted’s portfolio, the company said.

Mads Nipper, Group President and CEO of Ørsted, says in a comment to the interim report for the first half year of 2021:

In the first half of 2021, we’ve delivered good operational performance, while reaching multiple significant milestones and engaging in a range of strategic partnerships. 

Within our Offshore business, Ocean Wind 2 was awarded a 1,148 MW contract in New Jersey. We also entered into several new strategic partnerships in Norway, Korea, Scotland, and Japan. 

As our industry’s sustainability leader, we’ve set the ambition that no later than 2030, all new projects commissioned must have a net-positive biodiversity impact. Furthermore, we commit to either reuse, recycle, or recover all of the wind turbine blades in our global portfolio upon decommissioning. 

In addition, in our H1 2021 report, we have taken the first steps to commence reporting of our revenue, EBITDA, and CAPEX according to the new EU taxonomy whose purpose is to support the green transition.

Earlier we have also covered on how poor wind conditions across Europe have contributed to GO price increase in our Q2 - Summary and also covered in news that poor wind conditions had hit EnBW profits as well.

Source: Interim report for the first half year of 2021 (orsted.com)Results for the first half of 2021 (rwe.com)