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Project delays, failures threaten jobs in services and

manufacturing

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Offshore wind vessel orders fell sharply last year

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Cable maker LS Greenlink pausing plans for expansion at

Virginia

factory

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New Jersey wind port seeking alternatives for its facility

By Nichola Groom

Feb 13 (Reuters) - Companies that committed to

investments in U.S. offshore wind infrastructure and supply

chains are scrapping their plans as the projects they were meant

to serve face huge setbacks, including President Donald Trump's

plan to end federal support.

The pullback reflects the trickle-down effect of a dramatic

downturn in the U.S. offshore wind industry over the past two

years that has caused lengthy delays, cost increases and even

failures of many of the nation's proposed offshore wind farm

projects. It could cost thousands of planned jobs and billions

of dollars in investments.

"When a project fails to move forward entirely, there is a

ripple effect for businesses across the national supply chain

that isn't limited to a single state," said Stephanie Francoeur,

senior vice president of marketing and communications at the

offshore wind industry trade group Oceantic.

As recently as 2022, market research firm 4C Offshore had

forecast the U.S. market would exceed former President Joe

Biden's goal of installing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by

2030. The firm last year said it now expects under 25 GW to be

installed by that time.

A major offshore wind port in New Jersey, billed as the

first staging ground for the industry's planned expansion on the

East Coast, is being repurposed; billions of dollars in

contracts for new offshore wind support vessels have dried up;

and manufacturers are scrapping their plans, according to public

statements and Reuters interviews with 10 company executives,

business groups and state officials.

Once seen as a bright area of growth in the burgeoning clean

energy sector, the offshore wind industry has been stung by

soaring costs and, more recently, the prospect that Trump will

end crucial government support in the form of federal lease

sales, permits, and subsidies.

Trump last month issued an order to pause new federal

offshore wind leasing, calling wind turbines ugly, expensive and

harmful to wildlife.

Trump has called global warming a hoax and has promised to

focus his policies on maximizing already record-high U.S. oil

and gas production. He also pledged to slash public spending

that Biden had directed toward fighting climate change.

SHIPS, PORTS, AND CABLES

Shipbuilders have seen a swift decline in vessel orders to

serve the offshore wind industry, something that could impact

boat builders as well as U.S. steelmakers, according to

Oceantic.

The industry had seen a total of around $2 billion worth of

orders in the past decade for dozens of ships to move crews and

supplies offshore and to install turbines, Oceantic said.

Nearly $1.5 billion of that amount remains on order or under

construction. But in 2024, only one order was made for a ship.

Nearly two dozen shipyards in 13 states have been tapped to

build or retrofit vessels for the offshore wind industry.

"Manufacturers and steel providers across the Midwest lose

expected work they based plant expansions around, and small

businesses look at empty order sheets," Francoeur said.

New Jersey's economic development agency said this month it

was speeding up its search for alternatives for a dedicated

offshore wind port in Salem County, citing in part the change in

federal policy.

The 220-acre project was proposed by the state in 2020 as

the nation's first purpose-built offshore wind port, with

facilities that could support the immense size and weight of

turbines that can be hundreds of feet long and weigh more than a

fully-loaded 747 jet.

"We remain believers in the long-term potential of offshore

wind for New Jersey, but our role as stewards of taxpayer

resources requires us to evaluate all of our options," it said

in a statement.

Earlier, New Jersey state utility regulators declined to

award a contract to the only bidder in a recent state

procurement program, Atlantic Shores, which had been a joint

venture between EDF and Shell before the oil and gas

major pulled out last month.

Danish rival Orsted had been a tenant of the

port before it canceled two New Jersey projects in late 2023.

The thousands of jobs the port had promised to create are

now in jeopardy, according to Christina Renna, president of the

Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey.

"Other wind companies, if still interested, would be perfect

but given the climate, unlikely," Renna said, adding the site

would also work for the oil and gas sector or large

manufacturers.

In New York, two ports along the Hudson River were expected

to benefit from $2 billion in industry spending on factories to

produce offshore wind components such as blades and towers that

would be floated down the river to projects offshore.

But GE Vernova last year scrapped plans for a larger

offshore wind turbine, pulling out of a deal to produce the

equipment at the Port of Coeymans.

The nearby Port of Albany began millions of dollars in

upgrades in 2021 to support a planned tower factory, but that

facility has since languished due to soaring costs.

"Unfortunately, with changes to the offshore wind and

renewables industry - impacted by federal administration policy

changes and change in commitments from developers - the project

as it was originally planned has changed to a phased approach to

development," Port of Albany spokesperson Penny Vavura said.

The port's future in offshore wind will depend on whether it

receives state funding under a procurement that is expected to

be announced this year, she said.

A spokesperson for the Port of Coeymans, where electrical

and utility contractor Riggs Distler is producing turbine

foundation components for Orsted's Sunrise Wind project, said it

was closely monitoring the federal policy landscape but that its

operations and plans were so far unchanged.

The Port of New Bedford in Massachusetts has served as the

staging area for construction of Vineyard Wind, the nation's

first major offshore wind project. It expects to serve

subsequent projects, but is waiting to see the outcome of a new

federal approach.

"Offshore wind has presented us with a diversification

opportunity for the port to supplement our core industries of

commercial fishing, recreational boating, cargo and other marine

activities," Gordon Carr, the port's executive director, said in

an interview. "That work will continue with the ongoing Vineyard

Wind project, and we will wait and see on what comes next."

Submarine cable producers are also pulling back.

Italy's Prysmian announced last month it was

abandoning its plan to build a submarine cable factory in

Massachusetts to serve the offshore wind market.

The company revealed its change of plans the day after Trump

took office, but said the decision was not political. The

company's 18 billion euro backlog in its transmission business

is located entirely in Europe, a spokesperson said.

A competitor, LS Greenlink - a division of Korean cable

maker LS Corp - said it remained committed to its

plan for a $681 million submarine cable factory in Chesapeake,

Virginia. It said it can serve European customers from that

facility and could produce land-based cables if needed.

But Patrick Shim, LS Greenlink's managing director, said the

company had paused plans for an expansion of that facility.

"That could be nine to 10-figure investments and potentially

hundreds of jobs, but we just cannot make that plan right now,"

he told Reuters.