Wind Energy – USA
In a move that has caught the US offshore wind industry off guard, the Maryland Department of General Services and the Office of State Procurement have unexpectedly issued an invitation for bids (IFB) for offshore wind power, signalling renewed momentum after months of political and legal uncertainty.
The IFB, released on 9 December 2025, comes only months after the Trump administration asked a federal judge to overturn approval for the construction and operations plan of US Wind’s 2.2-GW Maryland offshore wind project.
That request was one of several actions taken by President Donald Trump aimed at slowing or halting offshore wind development across the United States.
More recently, however, a federal judge in Boston ruled that President Trump’s executive order indefinitely pausing permits for wind energy projects was unlawful. The ruling followed a lawsuit brought by 17 states and the District of Columbia, including Maryland, challenging the legality of the order.
Against this backdrop, documents issued by the state show that Maryland is seeking offshore wind developers willing to enter into long-term power purchase agreements for the ‘environmental attributes’ – namely renewable energy credits – of an offshore wind project connected to the Delmarva Peninsula. The proposed contract term is set at a minimum of 20 years.
The IFB supports Maryland’s ambition to deploy 8.5 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2031. To qualify, bidders must already control a lease area issued by the US Department of the Interior on the Atlantic outer continental shelf, located more than 16 kilometres offshore. In addition, bidders must demonstrate the ability to connect their project to the PJM Interconnection grid via a point on the Delmarva Peninsula.
Commenting on the tender, Signe Sørensen, lead analyst for the Americas at Aegir Insights, noted that the IFB gives bidders flexibility to determine their own commercial operation date (COD), a feature that could help developers set more realistic timelines.
Termination fees under the contract are estimated to range from US$15 million to US$120 million.
However, she pointed out that the January 16, 2026 bidding deadline leaves little time for action. Only a handful of developers—US Wind, Dominion Energy, Equinor and Ørsted—are likely to be in a position to respond.
According to Sørensen, US Wind already holds contracts with Maryland covering the full 1.7 GW of capacity planned in its lease area. Ørsted, which would otherwise be a strong candidate through its Skipjack 1 and 2 projects, may not yet be ready to re-enter US offtake auctions, despite stating when the projects were cancelled in 2024 that they could be positioned for future tenders.
That leaves Equinor, with what Sørensen described as a very undeveloped lease, and Dominion Energy, whose newly acquired lease borders its operational Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project.
“All of these developers appear to be unlikely candidates for committing to long-term pricing for future US offshore wind projects under the current conditions,” Sørensen said. “But if the COD can be pushed far enough into the future and the price is attractive enough, it may yet prove tempting.”
