Increased generation from offshore wind farms helped drive Orsted’s net profit to Dkr19.5bn (€2.6bn) in 2018, up from Dkr6.2bn the year before.
Operating profit was an all time high of Dkr30bn, up 33% on 2017, while offshore wind earnings increased 29% to Dkr11bn.
Orsted said the offshore figures were boosted by the Walney 3, Race Bank and Borkum Riffgrund 3 projects coming online, as well as the sale of a 50% stake in the Hornsea 1 development.
Earnings without new partnerships increased 18% to Dkr 15bn, exceeding expectations of between Dkr13-14bn.
This rise was was mainly due to higher achieved renewable obligation certificates recycle values, lower than expected costs and better than expected progress on Borkum Riffgrund 2 resulting in higher partnership gains and faster ramp-up of generation, the company said.
Renewables now accounts for 75% of the company’s generation mix, up from 64% previously, helped by the new offshore commissions and the acquisition of Lincoln Clean Energy in the US, which marked Orsted’s entry into the onshore wind market.
There is now 12GW of offshore and onshore capacity, as well as biomass combined heat and power, in the company’s portfolio.
A further 4.8GW has been awarded construction concessions, but yet to go to a final investment decision.
Orsted chief executive and president Henrik Poulsen said: “2018 was a great year for Orsted.
“We delivered our best financial result ever and continued our deployment of green energy, reaching 75% green energy in our heat and power generation.
“On a global scale, renewable energy will grow rapidly in the years to come. We are well positioned to take part in this significant growth.”