EDP puts three offshore wind projects in the US into “hibernation mode” due to regulatory uncertainty
CEO of the utility told Bloomberg the company has postponed final investment decisions on offshore wind to avoid potential losses.
EDP has decided to suspend three wind projects in the United States due to limited visibility regarding the remuneration policy of Donald Trump’s administration.
The three projects, located in Massachusetts, New York and California, have had their activity reduced to minimum services, including a reduction in staff to maintain only essential work, the company’s CEO, Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade, told Bloomberg.
The projects “are in hibernation mode”, said the company’s chief executive, who has postponed final investment decisions in order to avoid possible losses. “Basically, we have paused our projects to wait for better times,” he summarised in the same interview.
Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade also said the company had been “lucky” because construction had not yet begun, nor had significant investment been allocated to these projects, noting that some competitors were caught “midway across the bridge”. “We hadn’t yet started crossing the bridge,” he added.
Trump backtracks on renewables
The projects are controlled by Ocean Winds, a joint venture between EDP Renovables and France’s Engie. The executive also expressed satisfaction with the partnership, which combines the offshore assets of both companies, dismissing speculation that EDP might be considering selling its stake in the joint venture.
Donald Trump has been promoting measures to halt new licences for renewable energy projects while at the same time supporting fossil fuels. Last month, the Trump administration announced it would pay nearly one billion dollars to the French company TotalEnergies for abandoning its plans to build an offshore wind farm off the US east coast.
EDP’s CEO added that the company maintains a constructive dialogue with the US government.
EDP has already invested around 17 billion dollars in North America. The group is among the five largest renewable energy operators in the United States, with more than 12 gigawatts of installed capacity across wind, solar and storage projects in more than a dozen states.