Wind Energy – USA
Equinor booked a $955m impairment on its US offshore wind portfolio in the second quarter of 2025 amid regulatory challenges posed by the Trump administration.
The $955 million impairment includes $763 million tied up in Equinor’s Empire Wind 1 project and the accompanying South Brooklyn Marine Terminal (SBMT), plus another $192 million for the company’s undeveloped Empire Wind 2 lease.
“The offshore wind industry is facing major financial and regulatory challenges in the US,” reads part of Equinor’s Q2 2025 report. “Regulatory changes and increased exposure to tariffs impacted the project economics negatively in the second quarter of 2025.”
Empire Wind 1, located southeast of Long Island, New York, is currently under construction, despite an unlawful pause this spring following attempts by the Trump administration to halt activities on the fully permitted project.
Equinor claims that the 810-megawatt (MW) endeavour is still on track to complete offshore installation this year and to begin commercial operations in 2027. In its Q2 2025 report, the company states that the value of the lease for Empire Wind II is significantly reduced, as the project will not proceed anytime soon. This also diminishes the value of the SMBT, since Equinor planned to use it to transmit power from at least one Empire Wind expansion to shore, a prospect that now seems ‘unlikely’, according to the company.
Empire Wind 1 will still be able to take full advantage of tax credit eligibility, but tariffs on critical building materials like steel would make further development much more costly without any federal kickback, completely sabotaging any economic viability. Ironically, Equinor won the offshore lease auction for Empire Wind 1’s location during Trump’s first presidency, in 2017. Final approvals for the project were issued in February 2024.
