European companies exposed as Trump takes aim at US offshore wind

By Susanna Twidale

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump in his first day of office on Monday suspended new federal offshore wind leasing pending an environmental and economic review, saying wind mills are ugly, expensive and harm wildlife.

Former President Joe Biden supported the offshore wind industry, setting a target for 30 gigawatts (GW) of projects by 2030, up from 42 megawatts at the end of 2023, prompting many European project developers to acquire leases and plan wind farms in the United States.

Trump's executive order is not expected to stop existing U.S. offshore wind projects from being advanced.

Below are some of the European companies involved in the U.S. offshore wind sector:

BP - The British oil major has a lease off the coast of Massachusetts to build the Beacon Wind project that would become part of its newly announced offshore wind JV with Japan's Jera.

EDF - Through subsidiaries France’s state-owned EDF and oil major Shell, it has a 50-50 joint venture, Atlantic Shores, which has approval to build two projects off the coast of New Jersey.

EDPR - Portugal’s EDPR has a 50-50 offshore wind JV with Engie called Ocean Winds, which is developing the Southcoast Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts, due to begin construction in late 2025.

Engie – The French company's Ocean Winds JV with EDPR is also developing the Bluepoint Wind project off the coast of New York and New Jersey, and Golden State Wind off California’s central coast.

Equinor – Norway’s Equinor is developing the Empire Wind project that is expected to become operational in 2027 and power around 500,000 New York homes. It could be followed by a second Empire Wind project. Equinor has also won leases to build projects off the coast of Delaware and a lease off the coast of California.

Iberdrola – The Spanish company's U.S. subsidiary Avangrid has a 50-50 JV with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners to construct Vineyard Wind 1 off the coast of Massachusetts. It is also developing Kitty Hawk Wind, off the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina, and New England Wind 1 and 2 off the coast of Massachusetts.

Orsted – Denmark’s Orsted owns Block Island, the first operational offshore wind farm in the U.S., off Rhode Island. It is also developing several more projects off the East coast including Sunrise Wind. 

Orsted on Monday said the commissioning of Sunrise Wind had been delayed to 2027 and made public a 12.1 billion Danish crowns ($1.68 billion) impairment relating to higher costs and delays.

RWE – Germany's RWE and Britain’s National Grid have partnered to develop offshore wind projects in the Northeast U.S. with a lease off the coast of New York and New Jersey. RWE also has a lease to develop a floating wind farm off the coast of California.

Shell – The oil major has a JV with France’s EDF to build two projects off the coast of New Jersey, called Atlantic Shores.

TotalEnergies - France's TotalEnergies holds two maritime leases in the New York Bight and North Carolina's Long Bay. The Long Bay project will be over 1 Gigawatt (enough to power 300,000 homes), with startup in 2030. The project offshore New York and New Jersey is held through the Attentive Energy JV.

($1 = 7.2041 Danish crowns)

(Reporting By Susanna Twidale and the European energy team; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Barbara Lewis)