Offshore wind developers sue Trump administration for halting $25B in projects

Three offshore wind developers are suing the Trump administration after the Department of the Interior halted five projects worth a total of $25 billion on December 22. If completed, the projects would generate a total of 6 gigawatts of electricity.

Two lawsuits were filed Thursday and Friday last week by Ørsted and Equinor, which are developing the 704 megawatt Revolution Wind and the 2 gigawatt Empire Wind, respectively. Another was filed on December 23 by Dominion Energy, which is building a 2.6 gigawatt farm off the coast of Virginia.

Revolution Wind is nearly 90% complete, while Empire Wind and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind are each about 60% complete. Dominion said it was losing $5 million per day as a result of the halt.

Avangrid, which is developing Vineyard Wind 1, has not filed a lawsuit yet. Nearly half that project is currently operational.

The Department of the Interior cited national security concerns in its decision to stop construction on the projects. Though it didn’t mention specifics, the Trump administration may have been referencing the challenges wind turbines present to radar operations. The Department of Energy had issued a report that discussed this security concern, as well as solutions to it, in February 2024.

Wind turbines’ whirling blades have been known to stymie radar systems, but researchers in the government and private companies have been working to mitigate the problem for well over a decade. 

Choosing the precise site for wind energy projects is one of the biggest ways to ameliorate interference. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management coordinates with the Military Aviation and Installation Assurance Siting Clearinghouse to “review each proposed offshore wind project on a project-by-project basis, and would attempt to de-conflict concerns related to individual projects or multiple projects,” according to Vineyard Wind 1’s environmental impact statement.

Newer radar systems can filter the noise that wind farms produce through adaptive processing algorithms, Rand Corporation senior engineer Nicholas O’Donoughue previously told TechCrunch. Vineyard Wind 1 agreed to help fund radar adaptations and to curtail operations when asked by the Pentagon, for example. 

Earlier last year, the Trump administration halted approvals for new offshore wind projects in addition to pausing work on Empire Wind and Revolution Wind. The latter restarted after New York State negotiated with the Trump administration, while a federal judge struck down the stop work order for Revolution Wind.