Renewables developer Ørsted has promoted Neil O’Donovan to CEO of its onshore business unit following the resignation of his predecessor in August.
O’Donovan, who has previously held leadership positions at Stirling Energy Systems and project developer Lincoln Clean Energy, has been COO of Ørsted onshore since 2018. He has been interim onshore CEO for the past month.
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Having conducted a recruitment process that evaluated both internal and external candidates, Ørsted said O’Donovan is the best candidate for the permanent position.
Ørsted recently revealed plans to invest around US$57 billion by 2027 to reach 50GW of installed clean energy capacity by the end of the decade. While most of the investment will be focused on offshore wind and hydrogen projects, 20% is set aside for onshore developments, including solar PV.
O’Donovan said the company is on track to reach its 2030 targets, which include 17.5GW of deployed onshore wind and solar. “I’m looking forward to joining the executive committee and to working with the onshore team and all other Ørsted colleagues to accelerate our growth to the greater good of Ørsted and our vision of a world that runs entirely on green energy.”
Ørsted completed its first utility-scale solar-plus-storage project earlier this year. Located in Texas, the facility comprises 420MWac of solar paired with a 40MWac battery energy storage system.
Last year, the company also acquired an under-construction 227MWac PV plant in Alabama that it said would come online during the third quarter of 2021.
