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The US offshore wind sector has suffered another knockdown in its bout with US president Donald Trump after EDP Renewables announced it would be postponing its Southcoast Wind project by four years. Portugal’s EDP Renewables said in its investment community conference call that it would be taking a $139m impairment charge on the project. Its partner on the project, Engie, will take the same impairment regardless of the fact that Southcoast Wind is fully permitted. The project, formerly known as Mayflower Wind, was permitted on January 18 this year, only two days before the offshore wind-slaying current US president entered the White House. Construction of the 2.4GW offshore wind project off the coast of Massachusetts was supposed to begin in 2025. It was scheduled to be operational in 2030. After the decision by the developers, construction is now set to begin in 2029. According to EDP Renewables, final negotiations with Massachusetts were underway, financing and the interconnects were in place, and it even claimed that the project had an attractive PPA. Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade, chief executive of EDP Renewables, said during the call that it decided to take “the more prudent approach given recent executive orders and permit reviews”. However, the company has made it clear that it does not intend to abandon the project. Ocean Winds, a 50-50 joint venture between EDP Renewables and Engie and the developer of Southcoast Wind, also has leases for the Bluepoint Wind and the Golden State Wind projects in the New York Bight and California respectively. This decision comes only days after French energy major EDF wrote down $940m in the value of its stake in the Atlantic Shores wind energy project off New Jersey after its former partner in the project, Shell, did the same last month. Last week, energy supermajor BP withdrew its application for the 320-kilometre-long cable and interconnection plan for its Beacon Wind project in US federal waters between Cape Cod and Long Island. |
