Danish wind giant Ørsted wrote down the value of a wind farm it’s building in Rhode Island, the latest in a series of missteps that illustrate the halting progress of offshore wind in the U.S.
The $306 million write-down of Revolution Wind, a 704-megawatt project that will serve Connecticut and Rhode Island, is the latest in a series of costly write-downs that have helped push Ørsted’s stock price down sharply in the past year. It came after the company said it discovered additional contamination at the site of the project’s onshore substation.
Ørsted CEO Mads Nipper said Thursday the write down “has a significant adverse impact” but said progress on the project was continuing. The company has installed 47 of the project’s 62 turbine foundations, according to a person familiar with the project.
“We remain committed to constructing Revolution Wind as part of our wider Northeast portfolio of projects,” Nipper told financial analysts, who peppered him with questions about the potential for additional write-downs.
