Trump’s anti-aircraft policy hits European companies By Reuters
by Stine Jacobsen
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – European wind stocks fell on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew support for new offshore wind power on his first day in office. , which added to the pain in an industry that turned to the United States to revive its fortunes.
Denmark’s biggest Oersted (CSE: ), which fell 17 percent, came under more pressure from a slump in its U.S. venture.
The initially booming global offshore wind industry has struggled to deliver the carbon reductions pursued by many governments as cost, supply chain issues and planning issues have slowed its development.
U.S. wind prospects looked even better because of former President Joe Biden’s green investment policies.
But Trump, a long-time proponent of fossil fuels, blocked new federal offshore wind leases on Monday pending an environmental and economic review, saying wind turbines are unsightly, expensive and harmful to wildlife.
On Tuesday, Orsted reported 12.1 billion Danish crowns ($1.69 billion) in impairment charges related to the U.S. offshore market, sending sales down 84 percent from their 2021 peak.
Analysts say delays and high costs have been the main reason for the Orsted Sunrise Wind project, expected to be the largest US offshore wind farm once completed.
Sidebank analyst Jakob Pedersen told Reuters, however, that the company had pointed to irregularities in offshore leases that could be directly linked to Trump.
“Orsted has some properties in the U.S. that are worthless right now. Because of Trump, if there’s nothing to build, Orsted can’t sell or use the leases,” he said.
Other companies, including wind development companies, fell by smaller percentages.
Portugal EDP reform (ELI: ) shares were down around 1.6%, Germany RWE ( LON: ) shed about 0.5%, Norway’s Equanor fell 2.2% and wind turbine maker Vestas was down 3% in afternoon trade.
Italian Prysmian ( BIT: ), the world’s largest cable maker and a major player in offshore wind transmission, said on Tuesday it would abandon plans to build a plant in the United States to make cables for offshore wind farms.
Shares, which closed at record highs on Monday, lost about 1% on Tuesday.
RWE says there is no impairment.
Germany’s RWE, the world’s second-largest developer of offshore wind projects after Oersted, said there was no need for a setback on a 2.8 gigawatt US offshore wind project it is working on with Britain. National grid (Lon:)
“The executive memo on offshore wind was less of a surprise,” the company said. “We don’t think they need impairment at the moment as the offshore lease runs at least until the 2060s, so that’s a long time to make the project a reality at a later stage.”
EDPR and Vestas declined to comment.
Vestas won an order from Equinor last year to power New York’s Empire Wind 1 offshore wind project, and EDPR has a 50-50 offshore wind JV with NG, which is developing the South Coast Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts. Construction at the end of this year.
German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck told a conference in Berlin that Europe should continue to expand low-carbon energy regardless of policies during the Trump presidency and plans to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.
The American Clean Power Association (ACP), the US clean energy industry group, said it strongly opposes Trump’s wind leasing and permitting executive order.
“The states that will vote for President Trump are eight of the top 10 states that rely on wind power. Many of them rely on wind for a large share of their electricity use. Limiting wind development in these states will undoubtedly increase consumers’ energy bills,” he said.
Despite the headwinds, Trump has issued several orders aimed at boosting energy production from other sources while raising the stakes for US nuclear power companies.
($1 = 0.9614 EUR)
