In this News Flash, Ørsted pays $1.7B for delays and increased costs at their Sunrise Wind project, Aviva Investors invests €40 million in CIC, and Vibra acquires Comer Energia.

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Welcome to Uptime News Flash. Industry news, lightning fast. Your hosts, Allen Hall, Joel Saxum, and Phil Totaro, discuss the latest deals, mergers, and alliances that will shape the future of wind power. News Flash is brought to you by IntelStor. For market intelligence that generates revenue, visit www.intelstor.com.

Allen Hall: Well, starting off the week, Orsted has announced a significant setback, posting a 1. 7 billion dollar impairment charge for the fourth quarter of 2024 due to delays and increased costs at a Sunrise Wind Project near New York. The 924 megawatt project, located about 30 miles east of Montauk, around Long Island, faces construction challenges, particularly with monopile foundations.

Despite these difficulties, Orsted's CEO, Mad Snipper, reaffirmed the company's commitment to the U. S. market, though project completion has been pushed towards the second half of 2027, Phil. This is a big deal for Orsted. Orsted has been really profitable and a strong company for a long time, but these American projects are a real drag on their bottom line.

Phil Totaro: Absolutely. And I think they're, they're keen to get through all these things as quickly as they possibly can and, and also get to a point where they can, you know, have the project mature enough, either in construction or operation, where they can actually get an investor in. Which is what their original plan was with a lot of the utility companies in you know, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey and New York, I suppose with some of the proposed projects.

And, and a lot of those utilities decided, you know what, not for us, taking too long, costing too much, and just not our cup of tea. So the quicker they can get this sunrise project done and move on to potentially others because they still have revolution that they're trying to build as well. So

Joel Saxum: you

Phil Totaro: know, the quicker the better.

Joel Saxum: Frustrating thing here, I think on this project from someone who's been watching these in my seat for a long time and knowing what the soil characteristics are out there. These things, these studies have been going on since 2016, 2017 on what the soil conditions are that these monopiles are gonna be driven into.

This should not be a problem they're running into now. Now we know that there's been a, it's a weird. It's like this quick, sandy, odd soil. We know that, but we've known it for like eight years. So, they should have come up with a solution for this beforehand. This shouldn't be an impairment that they're taking right now.

But, they are, and it's reality. So, they'll have to push through it

Allen Hall: to get this thing built in 2027. UK based Aviva Investors has made a 40 million euro investment in CIC, a German renewable energy developer focusing on northern and central Europe. Now, CIC specializes in onshore wind and solar projects, particularly in Poland and Sweden, and currently manages about one gigawatt's worth of projects in various development stages.

Now, Phil,