Orsted may not be done with its North American acquisition streak just yet, as the Danish offshore wind giant rolls forward with its diversification into onshore wind, solar and storage.

The past few months have seen Orsted spending more than $1bn to acquire Chicago-based Lincoln Clean Energy (LCE) and Providence, Rhode Island-based Deepwater Wind – leaders, respectively, in the US onshore and offshore wind markets.

The Deepwater deal gives Orsted ownership of the only operating American offshore wind farm at Block Island, in addition to a trio of contracted projects due on line by 2022 and a large pipeline to complement its own development zones.

LCE, meanwhile, represents Orsted’s return to the global onshore wind market after a five-year lapse. LCE is a leader in the booming US corporate wind market, with a smaller footprint in solar.

Speaking Tuesday at the Goldman Sachs Sustainable Finance Innovation Forum in New York City, Thomas Brostrøm, Orsted’s president for North America, addressed the company’s growth plans.

“It’s going to be a combination of us growing organically, but we also want to be a meaningful player, and that means you have to make investment,” Brostrøm said.

“If you look at our balance sheet, it’s fair to say that it’s underused,” he said. “We’ve made two acquisitions lately, so that helps, but we could use a little bit more leverage – and that’s part of our game plan.”

While wind is expected to remain the dominant focus for Orsted in North America and globally, the company has established a standalone solar and storage unit in Austin, Texas. The unit, known as ESS, is led by Ryan O’Keefe, a veteran of storage specialist Younicos and before that NextEra Energy.

Orsted's onshore wind activities in North America are currently based out of LCE's offices in Chicago.

The transformation of Orsted over the past few years has been one of the most important stories in global renewables, with a company once known as Danish Oil and Natural Gas (DONG) changing its name and fully divesting its upstream oil and gas business. Orsted is far and away the world’s leading offshore wind operator, with a heavy footprint in Europe, the US and Taiwan.

But the company came to realise it had become “very much dependent on one technology”, Brostrøm said. “We might be the world leader [in offshore wind], and we want to maintain that, but that became a bit fragile."