Danish wind giant Orsted has announced it saw healthy £700 million profit growth in Q4 2018.
The wind developer has released results showing £1.7 billion pre-tax profit in Q4 2018, compared to £1bn in Q4 2017.
However, Orsted did experience a small dip in overall profit with a £149m shortfall between year end 2018 and the end of the previous year.
The Danish wind firm commissioned a number of high profile UK projects last year, including Race Bank and Walney Extension, the world’s largest offshore wind farm.
In Germany, Orsted commissioned Borkum Riffgrund 2 in December.
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.
“By the end of 2018, our portfolio consisted of 12 gigawatts (GW) of offshore and onshore wind farms and biomass-fired combined heat and power plants that are either in production, under construction or have obtained final investment decision (FID).
“Furthermore, we have projects with a capacity of 4.8GW for which we have been awarded the construction concessions or entered into offtake agreements, but are yet to make FID. In addition, we have a strong pipeline of projects under development.
“Towards 2030, it is our strategic ambition to reach an installed capacity of more than 30GW renewable energy, provided that the build-out creates value for our shareholders.
“Contributing to this ambition, we raised our 2025 ambition for offshore wind from 11-12GW to 15GW.”
