Offshore Wind Developers

Who are the Offshore Wind Energy Developers?

logos of the Danish Oil and Natural Gas company, Ørsted, Equinor, Statoil, British Petroleum, Shell Oil, and Avangrid

Foreign Energy Giants

All of the developers are foreign energy giants with origins in the fossil fuel industry, including Ørsted, the former Danish Oil and Natural Gas company (DONG); Equinor, formerly StatOil, Avangrid, British Petroleum, and Shell Oil.

A Portrait of Offshore Wind Companies 

Written By Lisa Quattrocki Knight, M.D., Ph.D. and Bill Thompson 

DONG, now Ørsted, oil rig in the North Sea

Who is Ørsted?

The former Danish Oil and Natural Gas Company rebranded itself as Ørsted. Although it claims to be “green,” Ørsted earns significant profits every year from burning coal. They may have turned to wind, not to save the planet, but because their gas reserves in the North Sea have run dry. Denmark now has fewer gas reserves than Italy and has the second-lowest amount of natural gas of all other countries with a history of reserves.

Bloomberg News headline announcing that Ørsted made significant profits from burning coal

Is Ørsted Green?

Ørsted profits from burning coal.

Wind Farm Developer Gets Profit Boost from Burning Coal

By Will Mathis, Bloomberg

The Danish energy giant, Ørsted, who has made an effort to re-invent itself as a green company with investments only in the renewable space, earned profits from burning coal last year.

Can We Trust the Offshore Wind Energy Developers?

Constrasting images of the same view demonstrating Ørsted's misrepresentation of the visual impact

Ørsted misrepresents the view from Newport

Newport residents assumed they would not see the Revolution Wind turbines based on the visual simulations Ørsted provided to the public. Ørsted submitted higher-resolution images to the US Government, yet these still had a blurred horizon compared to the foreground.

Image of the ecological disaster created by and then abandoned by Ørsted in the UK

Is Ørsted a good partner?

British residents call Ørsted's impact an "ecological disaster."

Ørsted Horsea Three Wind Farm Blamed for River Glaven Pollution

By Adam Barker, North Norfolk News

Ongoing work to build what will be the single largest wind farm in the world off the north Norfolk coast has been blamed for “destroying” one of the region’s rivers.

Constrasting images of the same visual simulation provided by Ørsted demonstrating their misrepresentation of the visual impact

Visual Misrepresentations

Ørsted has two sets of visual simulations. The set they released to the public (bottom image) does not show the turbines in the horizon, misleading the public about the visual impact.

list of important, yet confidential, appendices for the Revolution Wind Project

Confidential Reports

Ørsted has hidden 25 out of 51 technical reports from the public, including the economic impact assessment. We submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to no avail.

Offshore Wind: An issue of transparency

Written By Lisa Quattrocki Knight, M.D., Ph.D. of Little Compton 

image of the EPA permit for Revolution Wind's construction emissions

Revolution Wind's Air Emissions

Ørsted has hidden the air emissions report from the public, yet they had to apply for a special permit from the EPA for pollution that exceeds normal emissions levels.

The Revolution Wind Project OCS Air Permit

WBUR headline about whether we can trust big wind companies

Can we trust them?

Oil companies hid the effects of fossil fuels on climate change for decades. Can we trust them with the ocean?

Big Oil wants to be Big Wind. Can fossil fuel companies be trusted?

By Miriam Wasser and Benjamin Storrow