Three offshore wind developers have filed lawsuits against the Trump administration after the US Department of the Interior ordered construction to stop on five offshore wind projects worth a combined $25bn, a move that developers say has caused significant financial losses and disrupted projects already well advanced.
The Department of the Interior issued the halt on December 22, affecting projects that together would generate around 6 gigawatts of electricity if completed.
Lawsuits Filed By Major Developers
Two lawsuits were filed late last week by Ørsted and Equinor. Ørsted is developing the 704-megawatt Revolution Wind project, while Equinor is behind the 2-gigawatt Empire Wind project.
A third lawsuit was filed on December 23 by Dominion Energy, which is building the 2.6-gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project off the coast of Virginia.
Developers said the projects were already far along when the stop-work order was issued. Revolution Wind is nearly 90% complete, while Empire Wind and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind are each about 60% finished. Dominion said the halt was costing the company roughly $5m per day.
Avangrid, which is developing Vineyard Wind 1, has not yet filed a lawsuit. Nearly half of Vineyard Wind 1 is currently operational.
National Security Concerns Cited
The Department of the Interior said it halted the projects due to national security concerns, though it did not provide specific details. The Trump administration has previously pointed to the potential for offshore wind turbines to interfere with radar systems, an issue that has been studied by federal agencies for years.
In February 2024, the Department of Energy published a report examining how wind turbines can affect radar operations and outlining technical and operational solutions to mitigate the problem.
Wind turbine blades can create interference for radar systems, but government researchers and private companies have been working on ways to reduce those effects for more than a decade.
Mitigation Measures And Prior Reviews
Project siting has been one of the primary methods used to reduce radar interference. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management coordinates with the Military Aviation and Installation Assurance Siting Clearinghouse to review offshore wind proposals on a project-by-project basis.
According to Vineyard Wind 1’s environmental impact statement, the review process is intended to identify and resolve concerns related to individual projects or clusters of developments before construction begins.
Advances in radar technology have also played a role. Newer radar systems can filter out interference from wind turbines using adaptive processing algorithms. Nicholas O’Donoughue, a senior engineer at the RAND Corporation, previously told TechCrunch that such systems can significantly reduce disruption caused by wind farms.
Vineyard Wind 1 agreed to help fund radar upgrades and to curtail operations when requested by the Pentagon as part of its approval process.
Previous Halts And Legal Challenges
Earlier last year, the Trump administration paused approvals for new offshore wind projects and issued stop-work orders for Empire Wind and Revolution Wind. Construction on Revolution Wind later resumed after negotiations between New York State and the administration, and a federal judge subsequently struck down the stop-work order for that project.
The new lawsuits challenge the broader December halt and seek to restart construction on projects developers say are already deeply invested and close to completion.
Featured image credits: PETR NOVAK via Flickr
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