The Trump administration has reached an agreement with German utility company RWE to cancel an offshore wind lease, marking the latest in a series of such withdrawals. The deal, valued at $1.2 billion, brings the total expenditure on abandoning offshore wind projects to nearly $4 billion across 12 separate lease cancellations.
The terminated lease would have resulted in wind farms along the coasts of California, Louisiana, and New York. The New York installation alone was projected to generate over 3 gigawatts of renewable energy. Instead, RWE will redirect its investments, allocating $900 million toward acquiring a minority stake in a Louisiana liquefied natural gas export facility.
The remaining $300 million from the agreement will fund natural gas turbines for 15 peaking power plants distributed across the nation. These facilities, which operate at high cost and produce significant emissions, currently face supply delays extending into the early 2030s. Despite this domestic pivot, RWE continues its renewable energy expansion internationally, having recently secured 6.9 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity through a United Kingdom auction.
Originally reported by Techcrunch →
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