The Trump administration has moved aggressively to curtail offshore wind energy development in the United States, ordering construction stopped on major projects and paying developers to walk away from federal leases, even as global installations surged to new highs in 2025. Countries added nearly 9.3 gigawatts of new offshore wind capacity last year, a 16 percent increase over 2024, enough to power the equivalent of 10.2 million homes, according to the Global Wind Energy Council’s latest tally.

Global Growth Concentrated in China and Europe

China, the world’s dominant offshore wind market, installed 6.6 gigawatts of new capacity in 2025, bringing its total to 48.4 gigawatts, GWEC said. The country now accounts for more than half of all installed offshore wind globally and is expected to contribute 56 percent of the capacity forecast to be added worldwide between 2026 and 2030. The European Union is forecast to contribute 29 percent of additions over the same period. The United States, by contrast, is projected to account for about 5 percent of new offshore wind capacity through 2030, GWEC reported.

Globally, offshore wind farms currently installed can generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 102 million homes, the council calculated. Nineteen countries and markets now operate offshore wind, led by China, the United Kingdom and Germany.

U.S. Projects Stalled and Restarted

Trump’s December 2025 order halted construction on all five East Coast offshore wind projects that were under way, citing national security concerns. The projects included Vineyard Wind and Revolution Wind off Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Dominion Energy’s full-scale Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, and Empire Wind and Sunrise Wind, both slated to supply New York. Developers and states sued, and federal judges ruled that the government had not shown an imminent national security risk, allowing all five to resume construction.

At the same time, the administration is buying back some of the more than 40 existing federal offshore wind leases, paying energy companies to relinquish them and exit the sector.

Three U.S. offshore wind farms are currently open: the Block Island Wind Farm in Rhode Island state waters, Dominion’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind pilot project, and South Fork Wind, the first large U.S. offshore wind farm sending power to New York. Three more are nearing completion: Vineyard Wind, which has 62 turbines and is expected to reach full operations in the coming months; Revolution Wind; and the full-scale Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, which began sending power to the grid in March. At 2.6 gigawatts, it is the largest U.S. wind farm to date and will eventually supply up to 660,000 homes.

Economic Stakes in the Billions

Offshore wind development has generated $25.5 billion in investment into U.S. ports, steel manufacturing, shipbuilding, transmission upgrades, and workforce training, according to the Oceantic Network, a nonprofit that works to advance the offshore energy sector. That domestic supply chain now includes more than 1,000 U.S. companies across at least 40 states. The American Clean Power Association reports that the industry directly supports 18,000 jobs.

Oceantic estimates that canceling a single 1-gigawatt project in the Northeast could erase nearly $10 billion in economic activity, largely from lost jobs and investment, while also denying ratepayers the long-term savings that offshore wind can provide.

Consumer Savings and a Clouded Pipeline

Vineyard Wind, with 800 megawatts of capacity, is expected to save Massachusetts electricity customers $1.4 billion over the next 20 years, according to the office of Governor Maura Healey. The project has already lowered wholesale electricity prices during the past winter by offering power at prices consistently below other sources, state officials said.

However, with the administration actively dismantling the federal leasing program and blocking new projects, the future pipeline of U.S. offshore wind farms remains uncertain. Industry analysts note that the United States, once seen as an emerging major market, now trails far behind China and Europe at a time of rising electricity demand and intensifying international pressure to decarbonize power grids.