Portugal energy company stops work on SouthCoast Wind due to Trump

Summary

• Portuguese utility company EDP has paused three U.S. offshore wind projects, including one off the coast of Massachusetts.
• EDP's CEO stated the company is in discussions with the U.S. to find a solution for the stalled projects.
• The decision to halt the projects was attributed to regulatory and policy uncertainty under the Trump administration.
• Despite the pause, EDP's CEO affirmed the company's commitment to investing in renewable technologies in the U.S.

Portugal energy company EDP recently put three U.S. offshore wind farms on hold, including SouthCoast Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts, which was planned to connect to a substation at Somerset's Brayton Point.

However, its CEO Miguel Stilwell d'Andrade said the company remains committed to the projects and is liaising with the federal government to find a solution.

“Our strategy in the U.S. is very clear; we invest in renewable technologies. It is our largest and fastest-growing market, mainly in solar and batteries,” d’Andrade told reporters on Tuesday, April 21, in Madrid, while attending the WindEurope's Annual Conference, Europe’s largest wind energy conference and exhibition.

“But regarding the rest, we continue to see high demand [in the U.S.], at levels never seen before,” d’Andrade added.

SouthCoast Wind has a 127,388-acre lease area about 30 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and 20 miles south of Nantucket. Designed to generate up to 2.4 megawatts of low-cost clean energy to power more than 840,000 homes, the project features 141 wind turbines and five offshore substation platforms.

SouthCoast Wind proposed to run undersea cables along the ocean floor, making landfall at Somerset. A substation the company intended to build at Brayton Point would accept 1.2 megawatts of electricity; a second substation had been planned for Falmouth to accept another 1.2 megawatts. From there, the electricity would be fed into the power grid.

What it means for Somerset: Trump administration may be killing SouthCoast Wind

The project, a joint venture of EDP Renewables and ENGIE SA, was approved under the Biden administration.

President Donald Trump's administration, however, has been openly hostile to the offshore wind industry, shutting down several projects in New England and along the East Coast. In September, the Department of the Interior announced in federal court that it intended to reconsider approval for SouthCoast Wind.

On April 16, EDP announced it had paused three of its U.S. offshore wind projects due to heightened regulatory and policy uncertainty under Trump.

The other two EDPs offshore wind projects affected are in New York and California.

"They are halted, hibernated, and we are talking to the [U.S.] administration to see what the solution is for them," d’Andrade said, declining to provide further details.

The EDP CEO highlighted that Trump's current “very clear policy” against offshore wind remains a “very particular case.”

In contrast, he pointed out that offshore wind in Europe has developed significantly over the past few years.

“We are part of that, and we still see a long way ahead,” he said.