Offshore Wind Developers Sue Trump Administration for Halting $25B in Projects

Three offshore wind developers have filed lawsuits against the Trump administration after the U.S. Department of the Interior ordered construction to stop on five offshore wind projects valued at a combined $25 billion. The halt, issued on December 22, affects projects that together would generate about 6 gigawatts of electricity if completed.

Two of the lawsuits were filed late last week by Ørsted and Equinor, which are developing the Revolution Wind project, with a capacity of 704 megawatts, and the Empire Wind project, which is expected to generate 2 gigawatts, respectively. A third lawsuit was filed on December 23 by Dominion Energy, which is building the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, a 2.6-gigawatt wind farm off the coast of Virginia.

According to the developers, Revolution Wind is nearly 90% complete, while Empire Wind and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind are each approximately 60% finished. Dominion Energy said the halt in construction is costing the company about $5 million per day.

Another major offshore wind project, Vineyard Wind 1, developed by Avangrid, has not yet been included in a lawsuit. Nearly half of Vineyard Wind 1 is already operational.

The Department of the Interior said the decision to halt construction was based on national security concerns, but did not provide specific details. The Trump administration may have been referencing the potential impact of wind turbines on military radar systems. The U.S. Department of Energy addressed these concerns and possible mitigation strategies in a report released in February 2024.

Wind turbine blades can interfere with radar operations, a challenge that government researchers and private companies have studied for more than a decade. One of the most effective mitigation strategies involves careful site selection. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management works with the Military Aviation and Installation Assurance Siting Clearinghouse to review offshore wind projects individually and resolve potential conflicts, according to Vineyard Wind 1’s environmental impact statement.

Advances in radar technology have also reduced interference. Modern systems can filter out wind turbine “noise” using adaptive processing algorithms. Nicholas O’Donoughue, a senior engineer at the RAND Corporation, previously told TechCrunch that such solutions have been under development for years. Vineyard Wind 1, for example, agreed to fund radar upgrades and to curtail operations upon request from the Pentagon.

Earlier last year, the Trump administration also paused approvals for new offshore wind projects and halted work on Empire Wind and Revolution Wind. Construction on Revolution Wind later resumed after negotiations with New York State, and a federal judge ultimately struck down the stop-work order for that project.

The lawsuits now place the future of several large-scale offshore wind developments in the hands of the courts, as developers seek to resume work on projects that are already well underway.