Orsted will not be moving ahead with the Hornsea 4 project off the east coast of England "in its current form", the Danish multinational energy company has announced.

Since the contract for difference ( CfD ) award in allocation round 6 ( AR6 ) in September 2024, the 2,400-megawatt project has seen several adverse developments, Orsted says. These include rising supply chain costs, higher interest rates, and growing risk to construct and operate Hornsea 4 on the planned timeline for a project of this scale.

"In combination, these developments have increased the execution risk and deteriorated the value creation of the project," the company says. As such, Orsted says, it will stop spending further on the project at this time and terminate the project’s supply chain contracts.

The company will evaluate options for future development of Hornsea 4, given the continuing seabed rights, grid connection agreement, and development consent order.



"We remain fully committed to being an important partner to the UK government to help them achieve their ambitious target for offshore wind build-out and appreciate the work they’ve done to deliver a clear framework to support offshore wind," says Orsted group president and chief executive officer Rasmus Errboe.

"However, our capital allocation is based on a strict and value-focused approach, and after careful consideration, we’ve decided to discontinue the development of the Hornsea 4 project in its current form, well ahead of the planned final investment decision later this year."

Orsted says it intends to keep the project rights for Hornsea 4 in its development portfolio, and will seek to develop the project later in a more value-creating way for the company and shareholders.



In view of its decision, the company expects to incur breakaway costs of 3.5 to 4.5 billion kroner ( US$520.8 million to US$669.6 million ) in 2025.

This is not the first time that Orsted has cancelled a major offshore wind project. In 2023, it ceased the development of the Ocean Wind 1 and 2 projects in the United States.