FEATURE | Trump's anti-wind stance exposes the weaknesses in controversial global industry

Shares in European wind power companies fell on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump suspended offshore leasing for wind on his first day in office, adding to pain in a controversial industry that had turned to the US to help revive its fortunes.

The global offshore wind industry has struggled to play the role that many governments had envisaged in their plans to reduce carbon emissions. Escalating costs, supply chain issues and planning delays have hit the industry and led to project cancellations and delays.

Former President Joe Biden's green investment policy had provided support for the sector. Trump on Monday suspended new federal offshore wind leasing pending an environmental and economic review, saying wind turbines are ugly, expensive and harm wildlife.

Denmark's Ørsted was the biggest decliner, plunging 17 per cent as it took a $1.69 billion impairment charge on US projects.

A delay and higher costs for Ørsted's Sunrise Wind project, which once completed is expected to be the largest US offshore wind farm, were the main reason for the share price plunge, analysts said.

The company also flagged impairments on seabed leases that could be directly linked to Trump, Sydbank analyst Jacob Pedersen told Reuters.

"Ørsted now has some assets in the US that are worthless. If there is nothing to be built because of Trump, Ørsted can neither sell nor use the leases," he said.

Other companies involved in the wind industry also fell.

Portugal's EDP Renovaveis shares fell by around 1.6 per cent, Germany's RWE shed around 0.5 per cent, Norway's Equinor dropped by 2.2 per cent and wind turbine manufacturer Vestas fell by nearly three per cent in afternoon trade.

Italy's Prysmian on Tuesday said it would abandon a plan to build a plant in the US to make cables for offshore wind parks.

Prysmian's shares, which closed at a record high on Monday, lost around one per cent on Tuesday.

Stocks in nuclear companies rallied on Trump's support for boosting power supplies to meet the rising needs for data processing.

Stocks of US-based uranium miners like Energy Fuels and enCore Energy rose over four per cent, while nuclear power companies like utility Vistra, Talen Energy and Constellation Energy were up between four per cent and eight per cent in the afternoon trade.

Trump's energy secretary pick, Chris Wright, told US senators in his confirmation hearing last week that his first priority would be to expand domestic energy production including nuclear power and liquefied natural gas.

Risk to existing US wind power projects

The US has around 2.4 gigawatts (GW) of advanced-stage offshore wind developments that have reached final investment decision and are under construction. Those are unlikely to be impacted by the order, according to Rystad Energy.

The environmental and economic review of existing offshore wind leases could, however, pose some risk for developers of existing projects, analysts said.

The American Clean Power Association (ACP), a US clean energy industry group, said it strongly opposed Trump's executive order on wind leasing and permitting.

"States voting for President Trump are eight of the top 10 states in terms of reliance on wind power with many depending on wind for a significant share of their electricity use.  Restricting wind development in these regions is certain to increase consumer energy bills," it said.

In 2024, the oil and gas industry donated $32.3 million to Trump and groups affiliated to him, as per data from OpenSecrets. In comparison, Trump was able to raise just $453,687 from the US renewable sector.

The US renewable industry contributed $2.9 million in political donations, with 78.7 per cent of it going to Democrat candidates.

(Reporting by Seher Dareen and Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru, Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen, Amanda Cooper in London, Giulio Piovaccari in Milan and Alessandro Parodi in Gdansk; Vera Eckert in Berlin; Christoph Steitz in Frankfurt; writing by Nina Chestney; editing by Terje Solsvik, Louise Heavens and Barbara Lewis)