All five offshore wind projects halted by the Trump administration in December can now resume construction after a US federal judge ruled on Monday in favor of Ørsted, allowing the Sunrise Wind project off the coast of New York to move forward.
The ruling followed Ørsted’s request for an injunction blocking a US interior department stop-work order issued on 22 December, which paused five offshore wind leases. The projects were halted due to national security concerns linked to potential radar interference from offshore windfarms. An interior department spokesperson said the agency would not comment on pending litigation.
Ørsted said it would resume work immediately on the Sunrise Wind project while continuing its lawsuit challenging the stop-work order. The company added that it was also seeking a resolution by cooperating with the US administration. Ørsted has spent or committed more than $7bn toward the development of Sunrise Wind to date. Company attorneys told the court that if the order had not been lifted by 6 February, the project risked losing access to a specialised vessel required to install an offshore cable, potentially causing significant delays.
“Every court to review this question has now found that the loss of specialized vessels and resulting delays amounts to irreparable harm. I agree,” Royce Lamberth, a US district court judge, said before granting the injunction.
Lamberth had previously granted a similar injunction in January for Ørsted’s Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island. An attorney for the US justice department argued that the suspension was justified by newly classified information citing national security risks from offshore wind operations.
Offshore wind developers have faced repeated disruptions under Donald Trump, who has publicly criticised wind turbines as unattractive, costly and inefficient.
Analyst Jacob Pedersen of Denmark’s Sydbank said political risks remained elevated. “Even with the lifting of the construction freeze, there is an imminent risk that Sunrise Wind will face a very difficult and turbulent period in relation to the Trump administration’s obstruction,” Pedersen said in a client note.
Sunrise Wind is located about 30 miles east of Long Island, New York, and is roughly 45% complete. Once operational, it is expected to generate enough electricity to power nearly 600,000 homes, with operations projected to begin as early as October.