SouthCoast Wind Execs Cite Uncertainty Tied to Trump Administration
FEB. 27, 2025…..Another offshore wind power project Massachusetts is counting on could be pushed further out of reach.
Officials behind the SouthCoast Wind project are no longer committing to start construction by the end of 2025, and it could be delayed until 2029 based on the uncertainty President Donald Trump has injected into the industry, the head of one of the 50-50 owners of the project said Wednesday.
“We had basically the project ready to go. Now, obviously given everything that’s come out over the last couple of weeks in terms of executive orders, and sort of them asking to also review the federal permits, we’ve decided to just be more prudent around the timing,” Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade, CEO of the Portuguese developer EDP Renewables, said in response to a question on an investor call. “Recognize that already in terms of [profit and loss] if we get a better scenario, then that would be great, but we’ve, let’s say, taken the more prudent four-year delay approach. [We] could have taken a two-year delay, but we took a four-year one. So we still have the project ready to go, and we’ll try to, say, manage that optionality.”
EDP Renewables and Engie, the other half of the OceanWinds joint venture, wrote down the value of their U.S. offshore wind projects by €267 million (or about $139 million each) based on the potential that SouthCoast Wind may not get underway until 2029. Stilwell d’Andrade called a four-year delay for SouthCoast Wind “a slightly worst case scenario,” and other project officials stressed that the financial reporting does not mean the project will definitely be delayed.
“The impairment decision is a precautionary measure based on a scenario of potential delays in its projects,” Michael Brown, CEO of OW North America, said in a statement. “Ocean Winds strongly believes in the potential of offshore wind to generate significant economic activity and provide abundant, domestic energy to meet rapidly growing demand in the U.S. and remains confident in finding a path forward in coordination with all relevant authorities in the upcoming months.”
The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
SouthCoast Wind’s bid document referred to the 1,287 megawatts pledged to Massachusetts and Rhode Island as a “fully bankable project ready to start construction in 2025” and project officials said they anticipated being able to deliver power in 2030. On its final business day, the Biden administration announced that it approved the project’s crucial construction and operations plan.
An executive order Trump signed last month essentially halted all federal offshore wind actions “pending the completion of a comprehensive federal review of federal wind leasing and permitting practices.”
Brown said the decision to write down U.S. wind assets shows Ocean Winds’ “commitment to maintaining transparency and financial discipline in a context where the impact of any changes in U.S. regulations, and specifically the Executive Order of 20 January 2025, is not yet known.”
Massachusetts in September selected 1,087 MW of the 1,287 MW SouthCoast Wind project, with the remaining 200 MW going to Rhode Island. The Bay State also chose to take the entire 791 MW New England Wind 1 project and up to 800 MW of the 1,200 MW Vineyard Wind 2 project at the same time, though the Vineyard Wind 2 project has been taken off the table.
Contracts are to be executed by March 31 and filed by May 9, though deadlines have repeatedly been extended. Project pricing information is expected to be made public when the contracts are filed.
