How the U.S. and Europe Are Betting Differently on Energy Security

By Haley Zaremba - Apr 03, 2026

• Hornsea 3, set to become the world's largest offshore wind farm at 2.9 GW, connected its first seabed export cable to the UK coast on March 26, a key step toward its 2027 completion.
• 
  
• France is launching tenders for 12 GW of offshore and floating wind capacity by 2027 under a 'Made in Europe' initiative designed to prioritize local supply chains and reduce external energy dependence.
• 
  
• The Trump administration is paying TotalEnergies $1 billion to exit U.S. offshore wind projects representing more than 4 GW of potential clean power, redirecting those funds toward oil and gas.
• 
  

Europe is making a push for a robust homegrown offshore wind sector at the same time that the United States is gutting its own. The world's largest wind farm, currently under construction in the North Sea, made major progress on March 26 when it successfully connected its first export cable from the seabed to the coast of the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, France plans to auction off 10 offshore and floating wind projects with a combined capacity of 12 gigawatts by 2027 as part of a ‘Made in Europe’ initiative.

In the UK, the connection of the undersea cable for the massive Hornsea 3 offshore wind project marks a significant milestone for the offshore wind capacity and for European collaboration on making a more independent and autonomous energy industry. The project, which will benefit consumers in the United Kingdom, is being headed by Ørsted, a company from Denmark, while the cable installation is being carried out by Belgium’s Jan De Nul Group. When finished in 2027, the project will have a power generation capacity of 2.9 gigawatts, enough to power 3.3 million homes.

“Hornsea 3 will be a cornerstone in achieving the UK government’s climate and clean energy targets while increasing energy independence and creating local jobs,” Duncan Clark, Head of Ørsted UK & Ireland, was quoted by Interesting Engineering. “It will make a significant contribution towards the UK Government’s ambitious target of 50 GW of offshore wind by 2030 and net-zero by 2050.

It will also help to increase the United Kingdom and Europe’s energy independence, a pressing issue in today’s geopolitical climate. In France, the upcoming tenders for offshore wind energy will prioritize local supply chains. “We want these bids to be done as much as possible with our technologies, our factories, our employees,” said French Finance Minister Roland Lescure. “This is a long-term strategy to secure our industrial supply chains,” he continued.

The push for homegrown offshore wind comes as a part of the bloc’s larger energy security strategy, which has been kicked into overdrive by the current global energy crisis reverberating out of the Strait of Hormuz. The current crisis marks the third time in four years that European energy markets have been kneecapped by their dependence on global supply chains to keep the lights on. European leaders are determined to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, the United States is taking a completely different approach to energy security. Instead of diversifying domestic energy production in the interest of building up resilience to global market shocks, the United States is piling all of its eggs back into the petro-basket. In fact, the Trump administration is paying a French company TotalEnergies $1 billion to abandon offshore wind projects that could have generated over 4 GW of clean power. Instead, that money will be channeled into oil and gas.

“When the Trump administration came to power and began setting U.S. energy policy, we said that we’ll have to reconsider, clearly, these offshore wind project developments,” says Patrick Pouyané, the CEO of TotalEnergies. However, this doesn’t mean that they will be backing off of offshore wind development entirely. “To be clear, we don’t renounce onshore wind,” Pouyané went on to say. “We continue to invest in onshore solar, onshore wind, batteries [in other countries].”

Few examples more accurately and powerfully capture the growing divide in energy policy between the United States and Europe. While Europe tries to shore up energy autonomy and independence through renewables, the United States is targeting energy dominance through fossil fuels. Some experts say that this play will end up costing United States consumers more per megawatt hour of energy – and end up costing the world in terms of climate-related externalities.

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com