EDITORIAL: Ørsted’s US fiasco highlights need for new offshore wind business model

If governments are serious about achieving decarbonisation targets, there needs to be an honest conversation about how to do so in an environment of perennial macroeconomic uncertainty

By Seb Kennedy, associate editor of E-FWD and founding editor of Energy Flux News

The crisis engulfing Ørsted, the Danish state oil company-turned-flagbearer of the offshore wind sector, is an indictment of the firm’s senior management. The debacle marks a nadir in the flagging fortunes of the wider offshore wind industry, and raises profound questions around how to commercialise capital-intensive renewable megaprojects in an era of high interest rates and macroeconomic volatility.