Offshore wind has been expanding quickly in other countries as the Trump administration has taken steps that, in the AP’s description, have hindered the U.S. industry. President Donald Trump has stopped offshore wind projects in the United States and has bought some federal offshore wind leases back from companies, offering payouts to energy firms to walk away, even as the industry had been positioned for significant growth.
The AP report places the U.S. situation alongside the industry’s global scale-up. Offshore wind farms operate in more than 40 federal lease areas in the United States, and offshore wind has also spread across many countries, with China highlighted as the global leader. In that framing, wind turbines generate electricity without warming the planet in the way burning oil, coal and natural gas does.
By the numbers, the AP says 19 countries and markets were powered with offshore wind energy, with China leading by both the number of installations and their capacity. It lists the United Kingdom and Germany as the next major markets for installed offshore wind, and it also names other builders including the Netherlands, Taiwan, Denmark, Belgium, France, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, Sweden and the United States.
For 2025 specifically, the AP report cites the Global Wind Energy Council for capacity growth. China added 6.6 gigawatts of new offshore wind capacity in 2025, bringing China’s total offshore wind capacity to 48.4 gigawatts by the end of 2025. The AP also reports that globally countries added enough offshore wind energy to power 10.2 million homes in 2025, with nearly 9.3 gigawatts added, an increase of 16% over the previous year.
Forecasts extending from 2026 to 2030 point to continued concentration in China. The AP says GWEC expects China to account for about 56% of the offshore wind capacity forecast to be added worldwide over that period, with about 29% expected to come from the European Union and 5% from the United States. The AP also reports that offshore wind installed globally can produce enough energy to power the equivalent of 102 million homes.
The AP’s U.S. overview distinguishes between operating projects and others that have faced delays. It says three offshore wind farms are open: Block Island Wind Farm in state waters off Rhode Island; Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind pilot project, the first in federal waters; and South Fork Wind, described as the first large U.S. offshore wind farm sending power to New York. It also names three other U.S. projects—Vineyard Wind in Massachusetts, Revolution Wind in Rhode Island and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind’s full-scale project adjacent to the pilot turbines off Virginia Beach—with Vineyard Wind described as the furthest along and expected to reach full operations in coming months.
The report describes a December policy change that affected several East Coast projects during construction. It says the Trump administration ordered construction to stop on all five East Coast offshore wind projects under construction in December, citing national security concerns, and that the pause also included work on two major New York projects: Empire Wind and Sunrise Wind. Developers and states sued, and the AP says federal judges allowed all five projects to resume construction, essentially concluding that the government did not show the national security risk was so imminent that construction had to halt.
The AP also provides project and infrastructure details outside the immediate U.S. pipeline. It says Hornsea 2, the world’s largest operating offshore wind farm, has 165 turbines and is located in the North Sea 55 miles (89 kilometers) from England’s Yorkshire coast, generating enough energy to power over 1.4 million U.K. homes and covering an area of 178 square miles (462 square kilometers). It also says another U.K. project under construction will surpass Hornsea 2.
On the domestic economic footprint, the AP cites job and investment figures from industry groups and nonprofit advocacy. It says the offshore wind industry supports 18,000 jobs in the United States, according to the American Clean Power Association. It also reports that offshore wind development has spawned $25.5 billion in investments into U.S. ports, the steel industry, transmission upgrades, shipbuilding, workforce training and research and development, citing the Oceantic Network. The AP adds that Oceantic estimates the economic hit for a canceled 1-gigawatt project in the Northeast nears $10 billion, mainly due to lost jobs and investments, and that ratepayers in the region also lose out on energy savings.
For individual U.S. projects, the AP describes capacity and timelines. Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind is described as producing enough electricity for up to 660,000 homes and as having started sending power to the electric grid in March. The AP says the 2.6-gigawatt project is the largest U.S. wind farm to date and adds that it is located off the state home to what an offshore wind advocacy group Turn Forward described as the world’s data center capital and critical U.S. military infrastructure. For Vineyard Wind, the AP reports a Massachusetts projection from Gov. Maura Healey’s office that Vineyard Wind will save customers $1.4 billion on electricity bills over the next 20 years, and it adds that Vineyard Wind lowered electricity prices this past winter by competing in wholesale electricity markets with lower prices than other sources of electricity.
The AP report also says Vineyard Wind is the first offshore wind project to finish construction during Trump’s tenure, describing it as having 62 turbines generating a total of 800 megawatts—enough clean electricity to power about 400,000 homes.