An offshore wind project targeted by the Trump administration has begun sending power to New England’s electric grid, the developer said Friday.
Ørsted said Revolution Wind is now generating power and will scale up in the weeks ahead until it is fully operational.
Ørsted said it is building Revolution Wind with Global Infrastructure Partners’ Skyborn Renewables to provide electricity for Rhode Island and Connecticut. The company said the project has enough capacity to power more than 350,000 homes and businesses.
Revolution Wind was one of five major East Coast offshore wind projects the Trump administration halted construction on days before Christmas, citing national security concerns, according to the report. Developers and states sued, and federal judges allowed all five projects to resume construction, with the judges effectively concluding that the government had not shown the national security risk was so imminent that work had to stop.
The Biden administration had sought to ramp up offshore wind as a climate change solution, the report said. The report also cited President Donald Trump’s longstanding criticism of wind power and his administration’s executive actions aimed at boosting oil, gas and coal.
A White House spokesperson, Taylor Rogers, said Trump reversed course on Joe Biden’s “costly green energy agenda” and was moving toward what the spokesperson described as more reliable energy. Rogers said in a statement to AP that the administration “reversed course on Joe Biden’s costly green energy agenda that gave preferential treatment to intermittent, unreliable energy sources and instead is aggressively unleashing reliable and affordable energy sources to lower energy bills, improve our grid stability and protect our national security.” Rogers added that the administration “looks forward to ultimate victory on this issue.”
Ørsted said Revolution Wind will provide price certainty and stability, citing a preliminary analysis by the state of Connecticut that estimates it will lower wholesale energy costs by about $500 million per year by 2028. Amanda Dasch, chief development officer at Ørsted, said in a statement that “Revolution Wind is adding affordable, reliable American-made energy to New England’s grid, helping to meet growing energy demand and lower consumer costs.”
In Rhode Island, Chris Kearns, acting commissioner of the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources, called the first power milestone a “significant moment for the state’s clean energy landscape.”
Ørsted said Revolution Wind began construction in 2024 about 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of the Rhode Island coast. The developer said the wind farm has 65 of the 11-megawatt Siemens Gamesa turbines, and that more than 1,000 people have been working on the project.
Connecticut Rep. Joe Courtney said the project’s offshore location means its power is transmitted directly off the New England coast. Courtney said, “its price will not be at the mercy of uncertain global energy markets.” He also said the Friday milestone “never would have happened without talented Connecticut building trades workers, who persevered through the Trump administration’s illegal halt work orders.”
The report said the December order was the second time the administration halted Revolution Wind construction. Work was previously paused Aug. 22 over national security concerns, and a month later a federal judge ruled the project could resume.