Denmark-based energy company Ørsted has sold a 50% stake in the 2.9 GW UK Hornsea 3 offshore wind project, but a co-located battery energy storage system (BESS) is not part of the deal.
The transaction to sell 50% of the 2.9GW Hornsea 3 offshore wind project to asset manager Apollo, completed on December 30, does not include the 300MW/600MWh BESS, a spokesperson confirmed. Solar energy portal.
Construction of the 300MW/600MWh unit, named Iceni, started in March 2025 and it is expected to come online by the end of 2026. Tesla supplies the BESS technology while Knights Brown handles the construction. It is owned by Ørsted ICENI Energy Storage UK and will be connected to the same substation as the Hornsea 3 project.
The likelihood that the BESS will also be sold or sold would be speculative at this point. It is the company’s first large-scale BESS in Britain.
Hornsea 3 near Norwich, Norfolk, is the largest offshore wind project in Britain and builds on Ørsted’s operational projects Hornsea 1 (1.2 GW) and Hornsea 2 (1.3 GW).
The sale to Apollo includes a 50% equity stake and a commitment from the fund manager for 50% of the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) costs for the wind farm and offshore transmission assets, which Ørsted is supplying. The total transaction value is DKK39 billion (£4.5 billion) and the total project investment is between 70 and 75 billion euros. The transaction will consist of a share purchase agreement and a construction agreement payment of DKK 10 billion each, paid at closing, with the remainder based on certain construction milestones.
Approximately 8 GW/12 GWh of large-scale BESS is in operation in the UK. The Hornsea 3 BESS is part of a pipeline of 10.6 GW/23.4 GWh of projects under construction by the end of November 2025, according to the Solar Media Market Research report. Battery Storage: UK Pipeline & Completed Assets Database Report.
