Work on a huge UK wind farm has been halted in a body blow to Ed Miliband’s Net Zero drive.
Energy giant Orsted stopped development on the Hornsea 4 project in the North Sea, which could have powered more than a million homes.
The Danish firm said the project had suffered rising supply chain costs, higher interest rates and increasing risk of not finishing the project on time.
It said the problems had ‘increased the execution risk and deteriorated the value creation of the project’.
Tories insisted the decision showed that Labour’s ‘mad dash’ to achieve Net Zero by 2050 was ‘simply not sustainable’.
The Government is trying to ramp up Britain’s renewable energy generation capacity, mainly through offshore and onshore wind and solar power.
Mr Miliband has pledged to decarbonise 95 per cent of the power grid by the end of this decade.
Orsted chief executive Rasmus Errboe said it ‘continues to firmly believe in the long-term fundamentals of and value perspectives for offshore wind in the UK’.
‘We’ll keep the project rights for the Hornsea 4 project in our development portfolio, and we’ll seek to develop the project later in a way that is more value-creating for us and our shareholders,’ he said.
The Danish energy company said the move could cost up to £513million in break costs from cancelling contracts with suppliers.
Tory frontbencher Andrew Bowie said: ‘Once again, the full cost of Labour’s Net Zero madness is on stark display.
‘We have been consistently warning this government that their mad dash to net zero is simply not sustainable – and would leave investment and industry at risk – but Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband have buried their heads in the sand, even as another key infrastructure project has pulled the plug.
‘Kemi Badenoch and the Conservatives have been clear about the true costs of net zero by 2050. Will the government ever do the same?’
A spokesman for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: ‘We recognise the effect that globally high inflation and supply chain constraints are having on industry across Europe, and we will work with Orsted to get Hornsea 4 back on track.
‘We have a strong pipeline of projects to deliver clean power by 2030 and our mission-led approach ensures we can steer our way through global pressures and individual commercial decisions to reach our targets.’
Orsted has had a difficult few years, after high interest rates worsened the economics of developing renewable energy, and it recently replaced its former chief executive with Mr Errboe earlier in 2025.
It said in February that it would cut investment to 2030 by 25 per cent, as part of an attempt to restore its falling share price, which has dropped more than one-third in the last year.
Meanwhile, the state-backed firm’s recent foray into the US suffered a significant blow when Donald Trump was elected, promising to halt green energy and refocus on fossil fuels.