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All five US offshore wind farms under construction that received stop-work orders from the US government have been cleared to continue building, with Ørsted’s Sunrise Wind project the fifth project to be granted a preliminary injunction as part of a lawsuit challenging the order issued by the Director of the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on 22 December 2025.
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The US District Court for the District of Columbia granted the preliminary injunction sought by Sunrise Wind LLC on 2 February, allowing the project to restart impacted activities immediately while the underlying lawsuit challenging the suspension order progresses.
“Sunrise Wind will determine how it may be possible to work with the US Administration to achieve an expeditious and durable resolution”, Ørsted said. “With safety as the top priority, the Project will resume impacted construction work as soon as possible to deliver affordable, reliable power to the State of New York.”
The suspension of construction activities imposed by the Trump administration on 22 December was set to be in effect for 90 days to allow the federal government to conduct reviews related to national security issues for the projects that are mid-construction.
The national security concerns cited by the US government are said by the industry and some state governments to have not been specified. The DOI’s announcement of the stop-work orders from 22 December refers to radar interference, but the developers whose projects were affected pointed out that their years-long federal permitting processes also included scrutiny from the Department of Defense (now Department of War).
In a lawsuit filed in mid-January, New York Attorney General (AG) Letitia James also points out that the projects were “carefully reviewed” by the federal government, and argues that the stop-work orders fail to explain the federal government’s change in position and to provide a genuine justification for the suspension.
The five projects affected by the suspension are Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind-Commercial , Empire Wind 1 , Revolution Wind , Sunrise Wind , and Vineyard Wind 1 .
At the time when the US government ordered the pause, Vineyard Wind 1 had one wind turbine to install, so this project is expected to be completed soon, while Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) saw its first turbine going up immediately after Dominion Energy was granted a preliminary injunction.
When Ørsted announced it would file a complaint against the stop-work order for Sunrise Wind and request a preliminary injunction, the company said the 924 MW project was nearly 45 per cent complete, with 44 of 84 monopile foundations, the offshore converter station, and nearshore export cables installed.
At the time the lease suspension order was issued, Sunrise Wind was expected to begin generating power in October 2026.
Located approximately 30 miles (approximately 48 kilometres) east of Montauk, New York, the offshore wind farm will comprise 84 Siemens Gamesa 11 MW wind turbines and will connect to the state’s electricity grid at the Holbrook substation in Brookhaven, Suffolk County. Sunrise Wind is the first offshore wind project in the US to use a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) system .
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about 5 months ago
All five US offshore wind farms under construction that received stop-work orders from the US government have been cleared to continue building, with Ørsted’s Sunrise Wind project the fifth project to be granted a preliminary injunction as part of a lawsuit challenging the order issued by the Direct
