Forecast for Danish Offshore Wind Developer Ørsted Just Got Really Cloudy – HotAir

Recently, I told you Ørsted has hit some rough, rough seas, between a hostile Trump administration taking the US helm in late January and their own missteps and bad luck industry-wide. In the middle of this month, the majority of the Danish government-owned wind developer’s shares lost 27% of their value almost instantly when they announced they would be issuing a $9.4B ‘rights issue’ after business took an ‘adverse turn’ in the U.S. market.





What viable project Ørsted still had in the water would turn into a priority one for finishing, as a race to beat more bad news coming out of the Trump administration was on.

The biggest and closest to completion was a humongous offshore wind project dubbed ‘Revolution Wind.’ Ørsted put the pedal to the metal to get pylons in and turbine towers up as fast as they possibly could.

On Friday, there was some bombshell industry news out of Doug Burgum’s Department of the Interior – the administration was calling a halt to all activity on the massive offshore wind project being constructed off the Rhode Island and Massachusetts coasts.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) under the DOI is halting activity on the “Revolution Wind” project off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut in line with President Donald Trump’s energy goals to boost reliable energy resources and lower costs for Americans, the agency told the DCNF. The Trump administration has dealt a series of recent blows to the wind industry, with the DOI ending “preferential treatment” for what it considers to be foreign-controlled and unreliable energy sources and moving to terminate the massive Lava Ridge Wind Project in southern Idaho that the Biden administration approved just weeks before Trump’s return to office.





As my girlfriend over at Legal Insurrection, Leslie Eastman, reported this weekend, the stopwork order couldn’t have come at a worse time in the process, as the farm was already 80% complete and beaucoups bucks in sunk (literally) costs expended.

…Following this Truth Social chestnut, the Trump administration has ordered a halt to the construction of the Revolution Wind project, a major offshore wind farm located off the coast of Rhode Island. This stop-work order came despite the project being about 80% complete, with 45 out of 65 turbines already installed and significant investment already made.

Matthew Giacona, the acting director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, issued a letter on Friday to Orsted, the Danish company building the wind farm, ordering it to “halt all ongoing activities” because of unspecified issues.

“In particular, BOEM is seeking to address concerns related to the protection of national security interests in the United States,” Mr. Giacona wrote, adding that Orsted “may not resume activities” until the agency has completed a review of the project.

In a statement, Orsted said that it was “evaluating all options to resolve the matter expeditiously,” including “potential legal proceedings.” The company said it still aimed to complete the project by next year.

The usual suspects held a Waah! conference today with everyone from the unions involved to the governors of the states this monstrosity was supposed to serve having their moment of whine. Some, like Connecticut’s Ned Lamont, are hoping for a late-minute reprieve much like the one Kathy Hochul wangled for New York, with the wind farm for gas pipeline quid pro quo.





Liberal orifices like the Boston Globe simply stuck to their climate cult issued Green grifting talking points like the good little tools they are.

And about that ‘could have saved’ New Englanders all that money bald-faced lie? Really?

If that’s so, how did it already cost them all this money?

…The latest EIA data from May 2025 shows the truth: our average residential electricity price is 29.94 cents per kWh, a staggering 71% higher than the national average of 17.47 cents.

This crisis isn’t about global markets or cold winters. It’s about Governor Maura Healey’s reckless Net Zero agenda and Elizabeth Warren’s endless excuses. They’ve driven costs through the roof with their obsession over green experiments, leaving working families to foot the bill.

As energy bills soar, voters in 2026 should take a closer look at who’s responsible, and more importantly, who offers a better way forward.





This could well be a tactic for negotiation – I wouldn’t put it past Trump, considering what happened in New York, and the pressures on Empire Wind, as the Norwegian government was 40% of that company. In this instance, you once again have a foreign government that is a majority stakeholder in a project, not just with signed contracts, but damn near completion being unceremoniously canxed. That could very well lead to some international tensions and big lawsuits, which, depending on what the true aims of this action are, could have some impact on the halt becoming permanent.

The other side of the coin is what traction does it give the Department of Energy in the notoriously fossil-fuel-unfriendly New England and Mid-Atlantic Coastal states, as far as liquid natural gas pipelines go?

That was the stick he beat Hochul into submission with – and if she thinks she can bluff Trump, she’ll find out fast enough how wrong she is – and it might also be something in consideration here.

What is for sure is the tenuous state of Ørsted’s finances.

From what I read this morning, as of last week, that $9.4B ‘rights issue’ lifeline they were counting on to save them?





Is all predicated on them finishing Revolution Wind.

In a company announcement on August 25, Ørsted confirmed it will proceed with preparations for the rights issue and named BNP Paribas, Danske Bank, J.P. Morgan SE, and Morgan Stanley as Joint Global Coordinators, with BofA Securities and Goldman Sachs as Joint Bookrunners. The syndicate will underwrite roughly 49.9% of the offer not covered by Denmark’s state guarantee. An extraordinary general meeting is set for September 5 to finalize mechanics ahead of launch.

What prompted it

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issued a stop?work order for Revolution Wind, Ørsted’s 50/50 JV with Skyborn (BlackRock), after full federal permitting—including the Construction and Operations Plan—had been secured. Ørsted said it is seeking a swift resolution with agencies and, if needed, via legal channels, while targeting commercial operations in H2 2026. Project construction is 80% complete; Ørsted estimates about DKK 5 billion of remaining capex for its 50% stake and a run?rate EBITDA contribution near DKK 1 billion once online.

Project timeline and next steps

Ørsted continues construction at Revolution Wind and is working with stakeholders to secure a path to completion that would supply power to more than 350,000 homes, with COD still targeted for the second half of 2026. The company will “in due course” provide further details on the rights issue timetable following the Sept. 5 EGM.





If the company can’t get this resolved with boats and crews back in the waters working on the turbines before that 5 September meeting?

Shares in wind farm developer Orsted tumbled soon as trading kicked off on Monday after the U.S. government ordered the company to halt construction of a nearly completed project.

The company’s shares ended the day around 16.7% lower, provisionally, with shares hitting a record low according to LSEG data.

…The company also said that it would comply with the U.S. order and that it was considering options to resolve the issue and press ahead with construction.

The order comes at a critical time for Orsted, which is seeking to raise much-needed capital under plans that analysts suggested were now under pressure.

…“The financial consequences of the stop-work order will at best be the ongoing costs of the work being stopped,” he said, according to a Google translation. In the worst-case scenario, the Revolution Wind Project would never supply electricity to the U.S., he added.

…“Orsted’s assessment of this is positive – but it is no guarantee that it will end up like this,” Pedersen said.

YIKES

There are a lot more people in the ‘shut it down‘ court than ever before.





There’s not much time left.


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