Europe’s rudest-sounding energy company is being renamed – to reflect its focus on green energy
Dong Energy today announced plans to change its name to Orsted as the company shifts its focus to renewable energy.
The firm said the name Dong Energy, which stood for Danish Oil and Natural Gas, was no longer suitable after it completed the sale of its entire oil and gas business to chemicals group Ineoson Friday.
Dong Energy today called for an extraordinary general meeting to ask shareholders to approve a change of the company name to Orsted, which refers to the Danish scientist Hans Christian Orsted, who spearheaded the discovery of electromagnetism in 1820.
On its new website, Orsted describes itself as a renewable energy company working towards a world that runs entirely on green energy.
"2017 will be remembered as the year when offshore wind became cheaper than black energy, as demonstrated by the recent tenders for offshore wind in Germany and the UK," said Henrik Poulsen, chief executive of Dong-slash-Orsted.
"It has never been more clear that it is possible to create a world that runs entirely on green energy. The time is now right for us to change our name to demonstrate that we want to help create such a world."
The company was last month awarded a contract to build a new 1.4 gigawatt project at Hornsea to create the world's largest offshore windfarm in the UK after the strike price for offshore wind power was cut in half much sooner than expected.
Exciting news! We’re changing, and so should our name. From 6 November, we’ll be known as Ørsted. Learn more: https://t.co/35pCG3xinc pic.twitter.com/YS0zDv8KjA
— Ørsted UK (@OrstedUK) October 2, 2017
Dong has been working for a decade to transform from an energy company based on coal and oil to a global leader in renewable energy.
It has divested its upstream oil and gas business and decided to stop all use of coal while establishing a new team to focus on opportunities in energy storage and another team in Silicon Valley to explore emerging energy technologies. It will continue to trade in and sell natural gas, however.
"Orsted will be at the heart of the energy transition in the UK, from generation and storage, through to providing smart energy solutions," the company said.
The firm said its new brand identity was inspired by the Danish design tradition of simplicity, and it will consist of "a full spectrum of colours, inspired by Scandinavian nature and the Danish 20th century artist Vilhelm Lundstrom".
The rollout of the new name and design will take place from 6 November.
Read more: Dong Energy estimates UK wind industry exports could be worth £7bn