Offshore wind power

Germany’s largest offshore wind farm under construction, EnBW’s He Dreiht, just hit a big milestone: The first enormous turbine is now up in the North Sea.

Global renewable developer and energy giant RWE has halted its US offshore wind operations “for the time being” because of the “political environment” the Trump administration has created.

In its most aggressive attack against offshore wind yet, the Trump administration halted the $5 billion Empire Wind 1, already under construction off New York’s coast.

The US wind industry installed just 5.2 gigawatts (GW) in 2024 – the lowest level in a decade, according to Wood Mackenzie’s new US Wind Energy Monitor report. Installations are expected to rebound in 2025, but the real concern lies in US wind’s sharply downgraded 5-year outlook. As for the reason behind that bleak forecast, we’ll give you one guess as to why, and it starts with a T.

Global offshore wind is gearing up for a comeback in 2025, with new capacity additions expected to hit 19 gigawatts (GW) and spending projected to soar to $80 billion, according to Oslo-based independent energy research firm Rystad Energy. That’s a big rebound after a sluggish end to 2024 when new installations dropped to around 8 GW – 2 GW lower than in 2023.

Wind energy powered 20% of all electricity consumed in Europe (19% in the EU) in 2024, and the EU has set a goal to grow this share to 34% by 2030 and more than 50% by 2050.

To stay on track, the EU needs to install 30 GW of new wind farms annually, but it only managed 13 GW in 2024 – 11.4 GW onshore and 1.4 GW offshore. This is what’s holding the EU back from achieving its wind growth goals.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has released an encouraging new report revealing that 90% of wind turbine materials are already recyclable using existing infrastructure, but tackling the remaining 10% needs innovation.

That’s why the Biden administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has allocated over $20 million to develop technologies that address these challenges.

Equinor has secured $3 billion to finance New York’s Empire Wind 1 offshore wind farm, which will provide power for 500,000 homes when it comes online in 2027. It’s set to become the first offshore wind farm to connect directly to New York City’s grid.

Mingyang Smart Energy’s huge 16.6 megawatt (MW) OceanX, with its double-turbine, “V”-shaped floating wind platform, has begun operations.

After Donald Trump’s US election win, French energy giant TotalEnergies has hit the pause button on Attentive Energy, its planned offshore wind farm off the New York coast.

Donald Trump will push fossil fuels and undo renewable energy policies, but it ultimately won’t stop clean energy’s momentum.

Dominion Energy has hit a major milestone in the construction of its Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project. The company has put in place 78 monopile foundations and four offshore substation foundations during the first installation season, surpassing its initial target of 70 monopiles.

The Atlantic coast’s first floating offshore wind lease sale in the Gulf of Maine resulted in two provisional winners and $21.9 million in winning bids, with four lease areas awarded.

China’s Dongfang Electric Corporation has rolled out a 26-megawatt (MW) offshore wind turbine, the world’s largest in both capacity and size.

The world’s first commercial-scale floating wind farm, Hywind Scotland, is now back in Scotland and online after its five turbines were towed to Norway for maintenance.

Portugal’s WindFloat Atlantic – the world’s first semi-submersible floating offshore wind farm – is now four years old and still breaking its own power output records.

Offshore wind technology company Beam has deployed the world’s first AI-driven autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) – a breakthrough in offshore wind inspections.

Global wind turbine order intake reached new highs in H1 2024, with 91.2 gigawatts (GW) of activity, a 23% increase year-over-year, thanks to the Asia-Pacific region.

The US Department of the Interior (DOI) will hold an offshore wind energy lease sale in the Gulf of Maine for up to 13 GW of clean energy capacity.

Massachusetts and Rhode Island have selected 2,878 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind power in the region’s first-ever coordinated procurement.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has awarded the US’s first floating offshore wind energy research lease to the State of Maine.