Ørsted in the UK


We’re delivering more than green energy – we’re delivering lasting positive community impacts

Technicians working on a turbine on Walney offshore wind farm

Ørsted, one of the world's most sustainable energy companies, is helping the UK deliver on its net-zero ambitions.

Working together with local communities, suppliers, partners, and the government, we’ve helped make the UK global leaders in offshore wind.

We’re building on our 30 years of experience and expertise to help the UK truly realise its ambitious pledge to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050 – and achieve all the economic, social, and biodiversity benefits that can come with that. 

Together we’re developing new energy systems for the future, building skills, creating jobs, and growing the supply chain – all while ensuring positive impacts on nature.

Discover more about us

Our work in the UK

Wind of Hope out at Hornsea 2

Offshore wind power: Leading the way in the UK

As the leading offshore wind developer in the UK, we have 12 operational offshore wind farms that we either own or partly own. Our installed capacity is 5.6 GW – which is enough green energy to power over 6 million UK homes.1

Hornsea 2, the world’s largest offshore wind farm, became fully operational in 2022. Located approximately 90 kilometres off the Yorkshire coast, it has a total capacity of 1.3 GW – enough to power over 1.4 million UK homes with low-cost, green, renewable electricity. Coupled with its sister project, Hornsea 1, the two offshore wind farms generate enough electricity to power 2.5 million UK homes with renewable energy. 

The capacity of the Hornsea Zone is due to grow even further with the development of Hornsea 3 & 4. Upon completion, Hornsea 3, a 2.85 GW offshore wind farm, will generate enough electricity to power an additional 3 million UK homes with clean energy. 

We have invested over £15 billion in the UK building our offshore wind farms and expect to invest the same amount in the coming decade. We are committed for the long-term, both to leading the change to green energy – at the moment we generate over 7% of the UK’s electricity – and to investing in the communities where we work. 

Discover more about our offshore wind farms in the UK

Graphics of floating wind

Floating offshore wind: The next frontier in offshore wind

Worker at an Orsted renewable hydrogen plant

Power-to-X: Renewable hydrogen and other green fuels

Ørsted is investing in renewable hydrogen, also known as green hydrogen, and Power-to-X projects across the world that will play a vital role in decarbonising industry and transport, enabling the UK & Ireland to reach their 2050 net zero targets whilst maintaining jobs in traditional power-intensive industry.

Carnegie Road Energy Storage System

Energy storage

At Ørsted, we believe battery storage will play a crucial part in the future energy system as more of our energy comes from renewable sources.

We have taken our first steps into commercial battery storage by building and operating a 20MW project near Liverpool called Carnegie Road.

Wind turbines at an Ørsted onshore wind farm

Onshore wind: An unlimited and renewable source of clean energy

We’re continuing our green transformation 
journey by expanding into onshore wind energy. In Ireland, we own and operate a 360 MW portfolio of onshore wind farms, putting us on track to power over 300,000 Irish homes.

Here in the UK, we have four onshore wind farms located in Scotland – one in operation, with an installed capacity of 62 MW, and three additional projects in development.

It’s our ambition to grow our onshore capacity significantly over the next decade.

We’re delivering more than green energy – we’re delivering lasting positive community impacts

Developing our future work force

Over the last decade, we’ve invested over £15 billion constructing our UK offshore wind farms. This is helping to transform coastal communities across the UK through investment in local facilities, the creation of high-skilled jobs and apprenticeships, and the development of competitive, export-orientated local supply chains.

While we create thousands of jobs during the construction phase, we also offer long-term, skilled work in the UK coastal towns where we base our operations such as Barrow and Grimsby. There are currently over 600 people working out of Grimsby, our largest Operations Hub in the UK, and we expect that number to grow.

As a major UK employer, with over 1,200 employees, we are committed to developing people with the right skills to meet the UK’s offshore wind ambition. We have partnered with the Grimsby Institute and Furness College to offer a wind turbine technician apprenticeship programme on the East and West Coasts since 2017. So far, we’ve had 100% retention, with all the apprentices who have successfully completed the three-year programme becoming full-time Ørsted employees

Find out how offshore wind is transforming coast communities

Investing in local communities

Grimsby Youth Zone
Artist impression of Horizon Youth Zone, Grimsby

Across the UK, we also support the communities in which we work through grants, donations, and sponsorships. In the Humber region alone, we have invested more than £45 million directly into local community, education, and skills development, to date, including a £1 million donation to Grimsby’s Horizon Youth Zone, with significant further investments planned.

We have also committed over £1 million per year to our three UK Community Benefit Funds, which are supported by our wind farms along the North East and North West coasts of the UK. We ring-fence part of these funds to support local training and skills development. We encourage the study of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) in schools local to our wind farms through our partnerships with University Technical Colleges, the educational charity Teach First, and the social enterprise Stemettes

Explore our Community Benefit Funds

Biodiversity: Green energy that revives nature

Seagrass planting

Ørsted has set an ambition to deliver a net-positive biodiversity impact from all new renewable energy projects that are commissioned from 2030 at the latest.

Ørsted works to avoid, mitigate, and address the potential biodiversity impact of its projects, with one of the renewable energy industry's most experienced in-house teams of environment specialists.

In the UK, we're partnering with both Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Wildlife Trusts on our Wilder Humber initiative. The ambitious project is seeking to restore coastal ecosystems to mitigate climate change and support biodiversity in the UK’s Humber estuary. The project is focused on bolstering interconnected habitats and species – such as seagrass, salt marsh, seagrass, and oysters.

Discover more about our coastal restoration project

[1] This based on an average household electricity consultation of 3.689MWh (Enerdata) and a load factor for offshore wind of 48% (Ørsted figure used in our guidance for future OF assets and approved by FINAD) 
Graphic showing four wind turbines: one white wind turbine in the foreground, and three blue ones in the background.
Insights

On the path to net zero,
we’re just getting started

Renewable energy is powering green economic growth, creating energy security, and having a positive impact on UK communities and businesses.