Three offshore wind developers are suing the Trump administration after the Interior Department halted five projects worth a combined $25 billion on Dec. 22. Once completed, the project will generate a total of 6 gigawatts of electricity.
Two lawsuits were filed last Thursday and Friday by Ørsted and Equinor, developers of the 704-megawatt Revolution and 2-gigawatt Empire wind farms, respectively. The other application was filed on Dec. 23 by Dominion Energy, which is building a 2.6 gigawatt farm off the coast of Virginia.
Revolution Wind is nearly 90% complete, and Empire Wind and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind are each approximately 60% complete. Dominion said it was losing $5 million a day as a result of the outages.
Avangrid, the company behind Vineyard Wind 1, has not yet filed a lawsuit. Almost half of that project is currently in production.
The Interior Ministry cited national security concerns in deciding to halt construction of the project. Although not specific, the Trump administration may have mentioned the challenges wind turbines pose to radar operations. The Department of Energy released a report in February 2024 discussing this security concern and solutions.
The rotating blades of wind turbines are known to be a hindrance to radar systems, and researchers in government and private industry have been working for more than a decade to alleviate this problem.
Choosing the exact location of your wind energy project is one of the biggest ways to improve interference. According to Vineyard Wind 1’s environmental impact statement, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, in conjunction with the Military Aviation Installation Assurance Siting Clearinghouse, will “review proposed offshore wind energy projects on a project-by-project basis and seek to resolve any concerns associated with an individual project or multiple projects.”
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The new radar system can filter noise generated by wind farms through adaptive processing algorithms, Nicholas O’Donoghue, a senior engineer at the RAND Corporation, previously told TechCrunch. One company, Vineyard Wind, for example, agreed to fund radar adaptation and reduce operations in response to requests from the Department of Defense.
Early last year, the Trump administration suspended construction at Empire Wind and Revolution Wind and halted approvals for new offshore wind projects. The latter was resumed after New York state negotiated with the Trump administration and a federal judge struck down an order for Revolution Wind to cease operations.
