SouthCoast Wind Execs Cite Uncertainty Tied to Trump Administration
FEB. 27, 2025…..One other offshore wind energy venture Massachusetts is relying on may very well be pushed additional out of attain.
Officers behind the SouthCoast Wind venture are now not committing to start out building by the tip of 2025, and it may very well be delayed till 2029 based mostly on the uncertainty President Donald Trump has injected into the trade, the pinnacle of one of many 50-50 house owners of the venture stated Wednesday.
“We had principally the venture able to go. Now, clearly given the whole lot that’s come out over the past couple of weeks when it comes to government orders, and kind of them asking to additionally assessment the federal permits, we’ve determined to only be extra prudent across the timing,” Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade, CEO of the Portuguese developer EDP Renewables, stated in response to a query on an investor name. “Acknowledge that already when it comes to [profit and loss] if we get a greater state of affairs, then that might be nice, however we’ve, let’s say, taken the extra prudent four-year delay method. [We] may have taken a two-year delay, however we took a four-year one. So we nonetheless have the venture able to go, and we’ll attempt to, say, handle that optionality.”
EDP Renewables and Engie, the opposite half of the OceanWinds three way partnership, wrote down the worth of their U.S. offshore wind initiatives by €267 million (or about $139 million every) based mostly on the potential that SouthCoast Wind might not get underway till 2029. Stilwell d’Andrade known as a four-year delay for SouthCoast Wind “a barely worst case state of affairs,” and different venture officers careworn that the monetary reporting doesn’t imply the venture will certainly be delayed.
“The impairment resolution is a precautionary measure based mostly on a state of affairs of potential delays in its initiatives,” Michael Brown, CEO of OW North America, stated in an announcement. “Ocean Winds strongly believes within the potential of offshore wind to generate vital financial exercise and supply ample, home vitality to satisfy quickly rising demand within the U.S. and stays assured to find a path ahead in coordination with all related authorities within the upcoming months.”
The Govt Workplace of Vitality and Environmental Affairs didn’t reply to a request for remark Thursday.
SouthCoast Wind’s bid doc referred to the 1,287 megawatts pledged to Massachusetts and Rhode Island as a “totally bankable venture prepared to start out building in 2025” and venture officers stated they anticipated having the ability to ship energy in 2030. On its closing enterprise day, the Biden administration announced that it approved the venture’s essential building and operations plan.
An executive order Trump signed final month basically halted all federal offshore wind actions “pending the completion of a complete federal assessment of federal wind leasing and allowing practices.”
Brown stated the choice to put in writing down U.S. wind belongings exhibits Ocean Winds’ “dedication to sustaining transparency and monetary self-discipline in a context the place the impression of any adjustments in U.S. laws, and particularly the Govt Order of 20 January 2025, will not be but identified.”
Massachusetts in September selected 1,087 MW of the 1,287 MW SouthCoast Wind venture, with the remaining 200 MW going to Rhode Island. The Bay State additionally selected to take your entire 791 MW New England Wind 1 venture and as much as 800 MW of the 1,200 MW Winery Wind 2 venture on the similar time, although the Winery Wind 2 venture has been taken off the desk.
Contracts are to be executed by March 31 and filed by Could 9, although deadlines have repeatedly been extended. Venture pricing data is anticipated to be made public when the contracts are filed.
