Ørsted completes 50% Hornsea 3 wind divestment, 600MWh under-construction BESS not part of deal
- Özcan Berk Atakan
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
The transaction to sell 50% of the 2.9GW Hornsea 3 offshore wind project does not include a 300MW/600MWh co-located BESS, a spokesperson confirmed to Solar Power Portal.
Denmark-headquartered energy firm Ørsted has completed a 50% stake sale in the 2.9GW UK Hornsea 3 offshore wind project, but a co-located battery energy storage system (BESS) is not part of the deal.
The transaction to sell 50% of the 2.9GW Hornsea 3 offshore wind project to asset manager Apollo, completed on 30 December, does not include the 300MW/600MWh BESS, a spokesperson confirmed to Solar Power Portal.
Construction on the 300MW/600MWh unit, called Iceni, started in March 2025 and it is expected to come online by the end of 2026. Tesla is providing the BESS technology while Knights Brown is handling construction. It is owned by Ørsted ICENI Energy Storage UK and will connect to the same substation as the Hornsea 3 project.
The likelihood that the BESS will also be sold or sold down would be speculation at this point. It is the company's first large-scale BESS in the UK.
Hornsea 3 near Norwich, Norfolk, is the largest offshore wind project in the UK and builds on Ørsted's operational Hornsea 1 (1.2GW) and Hornsea 2 (1.3GW) projects.
The sale to Apollo involves a 50% equity share and a commitment by the fund manager to 50% of the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) costs for the wind farm and the offshore transmission asset, which Ørsted is providing. The total transaction value is DKK39 billion (£4.5 billion) and the total project investment is in the range of 70-75 billion. The transaction will comprise a share purchase agreement and a construction agreement payment of DKK10 billion each, paid upon closing, with the remainder based on certain construction milestones.
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