Policy

Now Trump's war on wind targets huge Iberdrola project

Spanish giant's New England Wind latest planned victim of president's vendetta against sector

Iberdrola chief Ignacio Galan.
Iberdrola chief Ignacio Galan.Photo: Iberdrola
Corporate Power Editor, Recharge

Donald Trump’s war on wind has another victim in its sights – Iberdrola’s 2.6GW New England Wind – as the US seeks to derail another fully consented offshore project.

Government lawyers said the Department of Interior (DoI) will by 10 October move to vacate federal approvals for New England Wind, which is under development by the Spanish giant’s Avangrid subsidiary off Massachusetts.

New England Wind in the Massachusetts wind energy area (WEA) has all federal permits in hand as well as an offtake offer for a first 791MW for New England Wind 1 project awarded by the state last September. It has so far not signed a power deal due to Trump-induced uncertainty.

News of the planned annulment is the latest move in the Trump administration’s astonishing attack on the wind sector, especially at sea, which has caused chaos for major foreign investors that rushed to develop a planned first wave of projects.

Iberdrola has so far not commented on the US government’s specific statement but apparently had been braced for New England Wind, consented under the Biden administration, to face Trump’s wrath.

The project's total value would be around $14.6bn, according to estimates from analyst BloombergNEF.

The Spanish group’s executive chairman Ignacio Galan discussing the wind farm in recent financial results hedged questions over the project with a series of ‘ifs’.

New England 1 was in theory due to be in operation by 2029 to help Massachusetts meet clean power goals that have been thrown into disarray by federal animosity to the sector.

The latest federal government move, revealed in court documents relating to a separate legal challenge to the project, comes days after it emerged that it “intends to reconsider” the construction and operations plan for Ocean Winds’ SouthCoast Wind Project, planned to serve Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Last month, his administration issued a stop work order on Orsted and Skyborn Renewables 704MW Revolution Wind project off Connecticut and Rhode Island, despite the fact construction is 80% complete.
And court documents submitted in another case showed that the DoI is also planning to reconsider the construction and operations plan for an up to 1.7GW wind farm awarded to US Wind, a subsidiary of Italy’s Renexia, off the coast of Maryland.
(Copyright)

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Published 4 September 2025, 08:43Updated 4 September 2025, 12:52
Donald TrumpUSIberdrolaAmericas