EDF and CIP buy into Five Estuaries; Ørsted to buy back Gunfleet Sands

Three ownership changes at UK offshore wind farms off the Essex coast were announced between October 8 and October 13, 2026: two new owners at the consented Five Estuaries project, and Ørsted buying back the share of Gunfleet Sands it sold in 2011.

EDF takes RWE's third of Five Estuaries, and the lead role

RWE completed the sale of its 33.33% stake in the Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm to EDF power solutions UK and Ireland on October 8, 2026. EDF takes over leading the project on behalf of the joint venture partners, and RWE says it will keep working with the project in the short term to support the handover. RWE's release gives no price.

The project won development consent from the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero on December 17, 2025. It is consented for up to 79 turbines with a maximum tip height of 370 metres, across two seabed areas covering about 128 km² in the southern North Sea, per RWE. RWE says it plans to reinvest the proceeds in its existing portfolio of consented offshore projects. Until October 8, Five Estuaries was one of them.

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners buys the Macquarie-led consortium's 25%

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) said on October 13, 2026 that its fifth flagship fund, Copenhagen Infrastructure V, has acquired the 25% share previously held by the Macquarie-led consortium in Five Estuaries. The partners are now EDF power solutions with 33.33%, CIP with 25%, and ESB and Sumitomo Corporation with 20.83% each, per the release, which names no price.

CIP describes an up to 1,080 MW project about 40 km off the north Essex and south Suffolk coast, consented in December 2025 after more than four years of development and expected to meet the equivalent needs of about one million average UK homes a year once operating. Since consent, the release says, work has continued on the project design, early procurement has started, and engagement with landowners and communities goes on. By our arithmetic, the two stakes sold in October 2026 come to 58.33%: more than half of Five Estuaries has changed hands less than ten months after it was consented.

Ørsted is buying back the 49.9% of Gunfleet Sands it sold in 2011

Ørsted has exercised a long-standing buyback right to acquire the remaining 49.9% of Gunfleet Sands 1 & 2 from its investment partners for a total of about GBP 15 million, the company announced on October 12, 2026. The 172 MW wind farm sits 7 km off the Essex coast and has operated since 2010. The deal is subject to customary closing conditions and expected to close in November, after which Ørsted will own all of it. Ørsted says full ownership gives it more flexibility in managing the site and assessing late-life options, including a potential lifetime extension, and that it will assess any similar rights on a case-by-case basis.

The announcement names the sellers only as investment partners. The 49.9% went the other way on September 1, 2011, when DONG Energy, as Ørsted was then called, agreed to sell 49.9% of Gunfleet Sands to Marubeni Corporation for about GBP 200 million in cash. By our arithmetic, the buyback price is about 7.5% of the 2011 sale price, for the same share of a wind farm now about 16 years into service.