Orsted pulls out of offshore auction

The Danish renewables company Orsted has pulled out of the offshore wind energy auction in Portugal.

The company withdrew as it reported devastating financial losses of €2.7Bn for 2023 and announced it would suspend the payment of dividends for the period 2023-2025 and cut 600-800 jobs worldwide from markets in Norway, Spain and Portugal where it had planned to invest in the construction of new sea turbines.
As to its new strategic plan, instead of increasing its ambitions for the coming years, the company has slashed its renewable capacity targets to 2030, from 50GW to 38GW.
Orsted had announced that it would compete, in a consortium with Repsol, in the future Portuguese offshore wind energy auction that has yet to be scheduled.
The Ministry of the Environment and Climate Action has confirmed that it will fall to the next government to launch the auction, but meanwhile meetings with over 50 interested consortiums have already been taking place with current government officials responsible for the energy portfolio, and insist that they remain confident and interested in taking part in the auction process that will grant licences to generate the first 3GW of wind power off the coast of Portugal.