Photo by Low Angle

Offshore wind developer Ørsted is cutting around a quarter of its global workforce by the end of 2027 in a strategic pull-back following years of expansion, with implications for the company’s significant UK operations. The Danish firm announced on 9th October that it would axe approximately 2,000 roles from its 8,000-strong workforce, with plans to make around 500 staff redundant by the end of 2025, including 235 in Denmark.

The firm employs more than 1,200 workers in the UK, according to its website, but did not provide a breakdown of job cuts per country. The workforce reduction will be achieved through natural attrition, position cuts, divestment, outsourcing and redundancies. The company has just raised 59.56 billion Danish kroner (£6.93 billion) through a heavily discounted rights issue to shore up its balance sheet and support projects.

Rasmus Errboe, Ørsted’s chief executive, explained: “This is a necessary consequence of our decision to focus our business and the fact that we’ll be finalising our large construction portfolio in the coming years – which is why we’ll need fewer employees.” He added: “At the same time, we want to create a more efficient and flexible organisation and a more competitive Ørsted, ready to bid on new value-accretive offshore wind projects.”

The restructuring comes as Ørsted refocuses its operations on offshore wind in Europe and select markets in the Asia-Pacific region, following a string of setbacks in the once-promising US wind market. The company has faced soaring costs, supply-chain bottlenecks and policy reversals under the Trump administration, which have forced a strategic retreat from American operations.

On his first day in office, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order suspending new or renewed onshore and offshore wind leases. Over the summer, the Trump administration ordered Ørsted to halt construction on its Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island—which was 80% complete and set to power more than 350,000 homes. A US court overturned that order last month. However, when asked if the job cuts were due to problems in the US, Errboe told journalists the decision was not related to specific US projects.

In September, Ørsted cut its full-year guidance, citing lower-than-normal offshore wind speeds across its offshore portfolio. The company is now honing in on the offshore business in Europe, where it was an early pioneer of the industry in the late 20th century. The annual savings from the workforce reduction are expected to amount to 2 billion Danish kroner (£311 million) from 2028.

Errboe said: “Today, we’ve told our employees that from now and until the end of 2027, we’ll be saying goodbye to many skilled and valued colleagues who’ve contributed greatly to Ørsted.” The phased approach to job cuts—spreading redundancies over several years—has caused unrest among employees, according to Danish newspaper Børsen, which spoke with management researchers about the implications.

The significant workforce reduction signals broader challenges facing the offshore wind industry, which has grappled with rising costs, supply chain disruptions and policy uncertainty across multiple markets. Ørsted’s restructuring follows similar consolidation moves across the sector as developers seek to improve competitiveness and adapt to changing market conditions.

For the UK, where Ørsted operates major offshore wind farms and maintains a substantial workforce, the job cuts represent potential impacts on the domestic renewable energy sector. However, the company’s stated focus on European offshore wind suggests the UK market—where the government has set ambitious targets to quadruple offshore wind capacity by the end of the decade—may remain a priority region for the developer’s future operations.

The restructuring announcement comes as the UK government plans to significantly expand offshore wind power capacity and has recently extended contract lengths and raised minimum prices to encourage developer participation in future tenders. Ørsted’s ability to remain competitive in this market whilst reducing its global workforce will be closely watched by industry stakeholders and policymakers as the sector navigates ongoing financial and operational challenges.