World's largest offshore wind farm unprofitable for Equinor, say researchers

"Equinor’s investment in Dogger Bank – the world’s largest offshore wind project under construction – will be unprofitable, according to a Norwegian government-funded study.

The new research raises challenging questions about the Norwegian state-controlled oil and gas giant’s energy transition strategy.

The study was submitted this month to Norway’s Petroleum & Energy Ministry, which financed it as part of wider research into potential energy transition opportunities for the country.

Equinor chief executive Anders Opedal set ambitious new goals in June for the company to step up its investments in “renewables and low carbon solutions” to more than 50% of its gross annual investments by 2030.

Equinor sees the Dogger Bank project in the UK North Sea as a world-class asset that benefits from strong wind conditions, innovations and unprecedented scale: It will have 3.6 gigawatts of installed capacity when completed.

One of the study’s authors told Upstream that the massive project’s rate of return does not exceed Equinor’s rate of return requirement, so the researchers deem the project to be unprofitable."