RWE stops all US offshore wind activities due to political climate

German utility RWE has frozen all of its US offshore wind operations due to the political environment created by the administration of current president Donald Trump.

In November last year, while the campaign for the new US president was still hot, the company said that the possibility of a new administration could jeopardise its operations and that it might have to delay its plan to spend €55bn ($62.4bn) on green technologies globally by 2030.

After Trump took office and started his crusade against offshore wind, RWE revealed that it would be scaling back its operations in the US and that it would lay off some of its offshore wind employees.

RWE Offshore Wind Services, a US subsidiary of the company, said at the time that it would cut around 73 employees from the Boston area. The layoffs mostly affected workers supporting the long-term development of offshore wind projects across the country.

Now, Marcus Krebber, CEO of RWE, said in a speech transcript that he’ll deliver at the company’s AGM on Wednesday, that its US offshore wind business is closed “for the time being”. However, the onshore wind, solar energy, and battery storage businesses will continue normally.

Due to the US political developments, Krebber stated that the company would be more stringent regarding requirements for future US investments.

“All necessary federal permits must be in place. Tax credits must be safe-harboured and all relevant tariff risks mitigated. In addition, onshore wind and solar projects must have secured offtake at the time of the investment decision. Only if these conditions are met will further investments be possible, given the political environment,” the RWE CEO said.

RWE already has invested heavily in US offshore wind with $1.1bn already splashed out for a lease area in New York, where it is supposed to develop the 3GW Community Offshore Wind with the UK’s National Grid as its partner. The project was scheduled to come online in the early 2030s and should power over a million homes.

It also paid an additional $5.6bn for the Louisiana lease in the Gulf of Mexico in 2023 to develop the Canopy Offshore Wind project off Northern California.