Three offshore wind projects inched forward during the first three months of the year, even as the developers shifted their focus away from the troubled U.S. market.
Ørsted said Wednesday that it has installed 60 of the 65 turbines at its Revolution Wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island, as well as the first five turbines at its Sunrise Wind project off New York. Equinor, meanwhile, said it had spent more than $600 million on its Empire Wind project in New York, finishing the installation of the subsea transmission cables serving the facility and the marine terminal used to assemble turbines.
The updates come several months after the Trump administration halted all three projects in the name of national security. All of them resumed construction after they successfully sued the administration.
The administration’s attacks prompted developers to shift their gaze from the U.S. to markets in Europe and Asia. In January, nine European countries announced a plan to grow offshore wind capacity in the North Sea to 330 gigawatts by 2050, up from 37 GW today. That shift accelerated after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February, resulting in a war that has upended global energy markets.
