PROVIDENCE – Orsted A/S, the Danish developer behind Revolution Wind, on Wednesday said it is fighting to restart the project and is considering a lawsuit against the federal government to reverse a stop-work order
issued on Aug. 22.
During a webinar on Wednesday hosted by The New England Council, Brian Smith, Orsted's head of government and market affairs for New England, acknowledged a lawsuit is being considered but did not give a timetable for a decision. He added the company is "fully engaged with local, state and federal partners to get [Revolution Wind] back on track."
Smith noted that the wind-farm project is 80% complete: 100% of monopiles have been installed and about 70% of turbines are in place. Meanwhile, one of the two offshore substations has already been installed and an onshore substation in Quonset is about 90% complete, he said. The wind farm is expected to power 350,000 homes.
"The project is at the finish line," Smith said. "If and when it gets back on track, it will start delivering power to ISO New England's grid in the second half of next year."
James T. Brett, CEO and president of The New England Council, said that the now-halted 704-megawatt Revolution Wind project is "critically important to the region's energy future.
"It's a broken promise to our communities, workers, [energy] consumers and businesses counting on this project," Brett said during Wednesday's webinar.
The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management cited both national security and environmental concerns in its Aug. 22 stop-work order, which paused all offshore construction on Revolution Wind. The halt triggered immediate market repercussions for Orsted, whose stock dropped more than 16% following news of the federal stop-work order.
Richard Levitan of Levitan & Associates, Inc., a Boston-based management consulting firm focused exclusively on the energy industry, said that he had "never seen an abandonment of a project this far along."
"It's a great disappointment that Revolution Wind has been postponed, and possibly abandoned entirely," Levitan said Wednesday. "Revolution Wind is a part of the [energy] solution, not the problem."
That same day, Gov. Daniel J. McKee requested an in-person meeting with President Donald Trump to discuss allowing Revolution Wind to resume construction.
The Revolution Wind stop-work order is a part of a broader shift by Trump against offshore wind, including halted projects and funding rollbacks.
Just weeks after taking office, on Jan. 20, Trump issued an executive order halting all new offshore wind leasing and permitting in federal waters, effectively freezing future projects.
On Aug. 29, the Trump administration filed a court motion signaling plans to revoke federal approval for the SouthCoast Wind project, located about 30 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, stating it would remand the decision to the Interior Department for reconsideration.
And on Wednesday, the administration took similar steps against Iberdrola’s New England Wind project, located off the coast of Cape Cod, filing a motion to vacate the project's 2024 federal permit and challenge BOEM’s construction and operations plan.
Correction: Orsted's head of government and market affairs for New England is Brian Smith. His first name was incorrect in an earlier version of this story.
Matthew McNulty is a PBN staff writer. He can be reached at McNulty@PBN.com or on X at @MattMcNultyNYC.
