Danish renewable energy group Ørsted plummeted on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange on Wednesday, following the cancellation of a huge offshore wind farm project in the US and €3.8 billion in write-downs.
The company’s stock was down 20.51% in a flat market at 10:00 (09:00 GMT).
During the night, Ørsted announced that it was abandoning the Ocean Wind 1 and 2 projects, two wind farms due to be installed off the coast of New Jersey.
In total, the two fields were to have a capacity of 2.248 gigawatts (GW), enough to power more than a million homes.
The decision will force the company to write down its assets by 28.4 billion Danish kroner, equivalent to around €3.8 billion.
Between July and September, Ørsted recorded a loss of 22.6 billion kroner, compared to profits of 9.3 billion the year before.
Over the quarter, turnover almost halved to 19 billion kroner.
In Europe, wind power is struggling to take a hold despite countries’ ambitions to transition to green sources of energy.
At a time when the sector needs to ramp up investment to meet the expected demand, it’s been hampered by soaring interest rates and material costs.
