Ørsted Expands U.S. Clean Energy Presence by Opening New Houston Location

HOUSTON – March 22, 2024 – Ørsted, a U.S. clean energy leader, today announced the official opening of a new office in downtown Houston, Texas. This new space will expand Ørsted’s presence in the Lone Star State, which already includes an office in Austin with 115 employees. Ørsted owns and operates eight clean energy projects in Texas that collectively produce 2.4 GW of electricity, enough to power over 550,000 Texas homes and businesses, with an additional 1.2 GW of solar projects under construction.

Drawing from the area’s deep energy expertise, the Houston office will be the base of operations for approximately 30 full-time employees dedicated to both onshore and offshore project support. In addition, many employees will support Ørsted’s growing Power-to-X (P2X) business, which will be concentrated along the Gulf Coast of Texas. P2X is the umbrella term for using renewable-sourced electricity to power the production of green hydrogen to create e-fuels, including e-methanol and e-ammonia. Leveraging green hydrogen will substitute the need for hydrogen produced from carbon-intensive sources and ultimately help decarbonize key sectors of the American economy.

“We’re excited to bolster Ørsted’s presence in the Lone Star State, which is already home to nearly a dozen of our clean energy projects. Houston is the ideal location to base our growing Power-to-X operations, especially due to the existing energy workforce that will be needed for the engineering, construction, and operations of Ørsted’s future facilities,” said Melissa Peterson, Vice President and Head of Onshore and P2X Americas at Ørsted. “Expanding our footprint in Houston is a testament to our commitment to decarbonizing the most hard-to-electrify sectors and our continued growth in Texas and throughout the Gulf region.”

Ørsted is a member of the Houston-based HyVelocity Hub, one of the seven hubs selected by the U.S Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations to receive funding for the development of new hydrogen projects. Ørsted is developing a P2X facility of up to 675 MW on the Texas Gulf Coast with a capacity to produce up to 300,000 metric tons of e-methanol annually which can be used directly as a marine shipping fuel, or as an input in sustainable aviation fuel or in chemical production This e-methanol will be produced using energy sourced from approximately 1.2GW of new onshore wind and solar generation.

This facility and future P2X projects will be crucial to advancing effective decarbonization efforts in the high-carbon transportation and shipping industries as well as creating good paying jobs as part of the U.S. clean energy supply chain.

About Ørsted
A global clean energy leader, Ørsted develops, constructs, and operates offshore and land-based wind farms, solar farms, energy storage facilities, and bioenergy plants. Ørsted was the first energy company in the world to have its science-based net-zero emissions target validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and is recognized as the world’s most sustainable energy developer in the Corporate Knights Global 100 index.<.p>

In the United States, the company has approximately 700 employees and a portfolio of clean energy assets and partnerships that includes offshore wind energy, land-based wind energy, solar, battery storage and e-fuels. Ørsted is a U.S. leader in offshore wind energy with approximately 3 gigawatts in development and operates America’s first offshore wind farm, located off the coast of Block Island. Ørsted has a total U.S. land-based capacity of 5 gigawatts across wind, solar, storage technologies and e-fuels. To learn more about the Ørsted U.S. business, visit us.orsted.com or follow the company on Twitter (@OrstedUS), Instagram, and Facebook.

Media Contact
Charlotte Bellotte
857-286-1989
cbell@orsted.com