BP spends £850m on 50% American wind farms as it battles to go green

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BP spends £850m on 50% stakes in two American wind farms as it battles to go green

By Daily Mail City & Finance Reporter

Published: | Updated:

BP has broken into the offshore wind market as it battles to go green.

The oil major has signed an £850million deal with Norway’s Equinor (which is also behind the Arkona wind farm in the Baltic, pictured) to buy 50 per cent stakes in two wind farms being developed off the east coast of the US.

BP boss Bernard Looney is kicking off a decades-long strategy to turn it into a green energy producer. 

BP has signed a deal with Norway’s Equinor (who is also behind the Arkona wind farm in the Baltic, pictured) to buy stakes in two wind farms being developed off the east coast of the US

He said the deal was an ‘important early step’ in a strategy to increase the power it generates from renewables 20-fold over the next decade.

The farms will be built off of New York and Massachusetts and together could generate 4.4 gigawatts, enough to power more than 2m US homes. Construction has not begun yet.

The companies think Empire Wind, an 80,000-acre project 15 miles from Long Island, will be generating power in the mid-2020s. 

Beacon Wind, around 20 miles from Nantucket in Massachusetts, could take longer.

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