Orsted, the world’s largest offshore wind farm developer, has launched legal action against the US government over the suspension of an almost-complete $5 billion project offshore of Rhode Island and Connecticut.
The Trump administration, via the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, on the Monday before Christmas issued a suspension order for five projects, including the Revolution Wind project, a 50/50 joint venture between Ørsted and Skyborn Renewables, owned by BlackRock's GIC arm.
At the time of the suspension, Revolution Wind was 87% complete, the Danish company said, with all offshore foundations installed and power generation expected to begin in January.
A supplemental complaint was filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on 1 January, 2026 to contest the lease suspension, to be followed by a motion for a preliminary injunction.
The company said litigation was necessary to protect the project’s rights, citing “substantial harm” from ongoing delays.
The project, which is designed to power over 350,000 homes in Connecticut and Rhode Island, has already cleared nine years of federal and state permitting processes and reached a formal mitigation agreement with the US military.
Revolution Wind is a only part of Orsted’s US portfolio, with a separate project, Sunrise Wind, also assessing its legal and regulatory options after it also received a 90-day suspension order from the BOEM on 22 December.
The Trump administration suspended five projects on the day, also including the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, Vineyard Wind 1 off Massachusetts, and Empire Wind 1 south of Long Island, with the five said to be capable of providing enough power for more than 2 million homes.
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said the 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."
Sunrise Wind, located further east off Long Island, is also in an advanced stage of construction and was set to deliver power to American homes in 2026.
Shares of Copenhagen-listed Orsted rose 3.6% on Friday morning.
The company said the projects will "strengthen electric grid reliability as a critical part of the Northeast energy supply, which is crucial to meeting growing energy demand" and warned that halting the project "may increase electricity costs and lower reliability for the region".
The Revolution wind farm has 20-year power purchase agreements to deliver 400 MW of electricity to Rhode Island and 304 MW to Connecticut, while Sunrise has a 25-year power purchase agreement to deliver 924 MW to New York State.
Taken together, Sunrise Wind and Revolution Wind can power approximately 1 million homes across the three states.
The projects have "supported thousands of American jobs across construction, operations, shipbuilding, and manufacturing", Orsted said, with Revolution supporting more than 1,000 union jobs.