“No Windmills Are Being Built,” Trump Declares
President-elect Donald Trump talked for the first time about the energy policy of his second administration and reiterated his opposition to renewable energy and specifically wind farms. The remarks came during a press conference in Florida which is being described by the media using words such as “rambling,” “freewheeling,” and “meandering,” and during which he said he would rename the Gulf of Mexico and would not rule out using force to take Greenland and the Panama Canal.
Trump is well-known for his disparaging remark against renewable energy in favor of fossil fuels and his campaign slogan, “Drill, Baby Drill.” During the campaign, he spoke against wind power and while naming executives from the energy industry and fracking to his new administration, had yet to directly clarify his administration’s policy toward wind farms.
“We're going to try and have a policy where no ‘windmills’ are being built,” he said during today’s press conference. “They litter our country…Nobody wants them….”
During what Bloomberg is describing as a “lengthy tirade against wind power,” Trump repeated many of his assertions against the industry. He asserts wind turbines “don’t work without subsidy,” are too expensive to develop, and are harmful to the environment. During his first administration, he said the noise from “windmills” causes cancer and that if they are near someone’s house it ruins the value of the property. (Possibly a veiled reference to his personal fight to stop a Scottish wind farm developed near one of the Trump golf clubs.)
Trump makes other accusations against wind turbines saying the offshore wind farms “obviously kill whales.” Multiple studies by the U.S. government and ecological groups have said no link has been found between whale strandings and death and offshore wind turbines.
While Trump says none will be built it is unclear how far his administration will be able to go in stopping the industry. The New York Times cites data from the Department of Energy reporting wind power is one of the fastest-growing and lowest-cost sources of electricity in the United States. DOE says wind power accounted for 22 percent of new installed electric capacity in 2022.
Onshore wind power development is mostly on private lands. It is also in states including Texas, Wyoming, and Iowa. The New York Times cites data from the American Clean Power Association reporting that 24 GW of onshore wind power is under development in Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Offshore wind farms however are on U.S. federal lands and leases. The first Trump administration was accused of “slow walking” permitting for offshore wind farms. The Biden administration moved to launch the offshore sector and accelerated permitting in its final months. It ends having approved 11 commercial-scale offshore wind farms. The Department of the Interior and its Bureau of Ocean Energy Management highlighted the approval of over 19 GW of offshore wind energy projects – enough to power more than six million homes.
Biden's policy for offshore wind also contributed to shipbuilding, port development and other industries. In 2023, Biden highlighted at the first steel cut for a rock installation vessel, that companies had announced 18 offshore wind shipbuilding projects as well as investments of nearly $3.5 billion across 12 manufacturing facilities and 13 ports to strengthen the American offshore wind supply chain. The vessels range from the first Jones Act-compliant installation vessels to a SOV, and crew transfer vessels. They are being built at shipyards ranging from Florida to Louisiana, New York, Massachusetts, Michigan, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. The industry created new business for companies ranging from tugboats to supplying and marine services.
Experts point out it is unlikely the Trump administration can cancel leases and reverse the approvals. The first offshore wind farms started delivering power in 2024 and construction is underway from Massachusetts to Virginia for large offshore projects.
The industry however has already been confronted with challenges and the speculation is that further licensing will be curtailed. Leaders in the industry including RWE and TotalEnergies had already said they would be delaying U.S. developments based on the uncertainties of the new administration. Energy majors including Shell and BP have also announced a shift in their policies reducing the focus on wind energy in the companies’ portfolios.
CIMC Delivers World's Biggest Wind Turbine Installation Vessel
Dutch offshore services contractor Van Oord has taken delivery of a new wind turbine installation vessel to keep up with the changing offshore wind sector. The company is anticipating an increase in scale in the offshore wind industry and believes the addition of the newbuild Boreas to its fleet will cement its competitive edge.
Constructed at the Yantai CIMC Raffles Offshore Ltd. shipyard in China, Boreas is purpose-built for the transport and installation of the next generation of foundations and turbines at offshore wind farms. The dual fuel engine vessel is expected to be the largest of its kind once operational, and is named after the Greek god of the Northern winds.
Measuring 175 meters with a 155-meter-high boom, the vessel will have the capability to lift more than 3,000 tonnes while her four giant legs - each measuring 126 meters - will allow the vessel to be jacked up for work in waters up to 70 meters deep.
With these outsize dimensions, Boreas will be able to install turbines of up to 20 MW. The ship is also methanol-ready, and running on the green fuel would reduce its carbon footprint by more than 78 percent.
The vessel is also equipped with a cutting-edge active emissions control technology that will reduce NOx emission to an absolute minimum. A battery pack of about 6,000 kWh will be able to take peak loads and regenerate energy to reduce the fuel consumption and corresponding emissions even further.
Following the completion of its construction in China, Boreas is now being prepared to sail to the Netherlands for final outfitting works, which will include the installation of equipment for storing and handling the foundations of wind turbines. The vessel is expected to be commercially available in the third quarter of this year.
The company has said it intends to deploy the vessel to transport and install 104 monopile foundations for the Nordseecluster offshore wind project in Germany that is being developed by RWE. Some 44 monopiles are planned for installation this year and the remaining 60 in 2027. The 1.6 GW wind farm will generate enough renewable energy to supply the equivalent of 1.6 million households.
“Undoubtedly Boreas is a benchmark for the whole offshore wind industry for many years to come and will play a significant role for the transportation and installation of the next generation of foundations and up to 20 MW offshore wind turbines at sea,” said Zhao Hui, CIMC Raffles Group Vice President.
Van Oord has been assembling specialized offshore wind assets to cement its competitiveness in the industry. These include the Aeolus, a vessel that is purpose-built to transport and install foundations and offshore wind turbines; and Nexus and Calypso, two cable-layers designed for challenging tasks. Van Oord’s unique heavy lift installation vessel Svanen is one of the largest crane vessels in the world.
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