The United States Interior Department on Monday suspended five offshore wind leases under construction effective immediately, citing security risks identified in “classified reports”.
The leases are Dominion Energy Inc’s 2,600-megawatt (MW) Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW), Ørsted A/S’ 924-MW Sunrise Wind east of Long Island, Equinor ASA’s 810-MW Empire Wind 1 south of Long Island, Iberdrola SA and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners’ 800-MW Vineyard Wind 1 south of Martha’s Vineyard, Ørsted and Global Infrastructure Partners’ 704-MW Revolution Wind off Rhode Island’s southern coast.
Interior cited “recently completed classified reports” by the War Department. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in the statement, “Today’s action addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies, and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our east coast population centers”.
Interior said, “This pause will give the Department, along with the Department of War and other relevant government agencies, time to work with leaseholders and state partners to assess the possibility of mitigating the national security risks posed by these projects”.
“As for the national security risks inherent to large-scale offshore wind projects, unclassified reports from the U.S. government have long found that the movement of massive turbine blades and the highly reflective towers create radar interference called ‘clutter'”, Interior added. “The clutter caused by offshore wind projects obscures legitimate moving targets and generates false targets in the vicinity of the wind projects”.
According to statements from the affected companies, the pause means a 90-day work suspension.
Dominion Energy said, “Stopping CVOW for any length of time will threaten grid reliability for some of the nation’s most important war-fighting, AI and civilian assets. It will also lead to energy inflation and threaten thousands of jobs”.
“Our customers are paying for the project after a careful review of project costs and benefits by Virginia state regulators in 2022. These same state regulators, along with numerous federal agencies, oversee our cyber and physical security program, which is among the strongest in the energy industry”, the Richmond-based power and gas utility added.
“The project has been more than 10 years in the works, involved close coordination with the military and is located 27 to 44 miles offshore, so far offshore it does not raise visual impact concerns. The project’s two pilot turbines have been operating for five years without causing any impacts to national security”.
“Virginia’s All-American, All-of-the-Above-Energy Plan requires a range of power generation assets, including natural gas, advanced nuclear and renewables”, Dominion said. “Virginia needs every electron we can get as our demand for electricity doubles. These electrons will power the data centers that will win the AI race, support our war fighters and build the nuclear warships needed to maintain our maritime supremacy.
“We stand ready to do what is necessary to get these vital electrons flowing as quickly as possible”.
Denmark’s majority state-owned Ørsted said, “Ørsted is evaluating all options to resolve the matter expeditiously, together with its partners. This includes engagement with BOEM [Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management] and other permitting agencies as well as the evaluation of potential legal proceedings”.
“Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind are both in advanced stages of construction and will be ready to deliver reliable, affordable power to American homes in 2026, with Revolution Wind expected to begin generating power in January”, it added.
“As a requirement of the permitting process for these projects, Revolution Wind LLC and Sunrise Wind LLC consulted closely and directly with the U.S. Department of Defense Military Aviation and Installation Assurance Siting Clearinghouse to evaluate and address potential impacts to national security and defense capabilities from construction and operation of the Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind projects”, Ørsted noted.
Norway’s majority state-owned Equinor said, “Empire plans to continue to work with BOEM and other federal agencies to continue to implement all necessary mitigation for the project”.
“The project is more than 60 percent complete, with trenching, cable-laying and cable pulling ongoing on the U.S. outer continental shelf. In total, dozens of vessels, around 1,000 people and more than a hundred companies in the US and globally have been working in coordination on the Empire Wind project”, it added.
“The stop work order threatens the progress of these activities and without a swift solution there may be significant impact to the project”.
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