Ørsted must resume work on the offshore wind farm Revolution Wind off the US east coast.
A judge in a federal court in Washington D.C. has ruled. Monday evening Danish time.
In early January, Ørsted announced that the company had filed a complaint with the court after the US Department of the Interior put the offshore wind project on hold in December.
In this connection, the company requested that the court, in continuation of this, grant the complaint suspensive effect.
Because the company has now been successful in that part, work on the project must resume, at least until a final court decision is made in the main lawsuit.
- The project will resume construction work as soon as possible with safety as the highest priority in order to deliver reliable and affordable electricity to the northeastern United States, Ørsted writes in a statement after the decision.
The order, which came from the authorities on December 22 last year, meant that activities related to Revolution Wind would otherwise have to be stopped for 90 days.
According to the US Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, was the reason for national security.
According to the news agency Reuters, the ministry said that the Pentagon had expressed concern that the movement of the wind turbine blades and reflective towers cause radar interference.
But that explanation was not enough to convince the judge. He simply did not believe that the ministry's documentation in connection with Monday's hearing was sufficient.
Revolution Wind is an offshore wind farm that Ørsted is building off the east coast of the United States. According to Ørsted, the farm is about 87 percent complete, and 58 out of 65 wind turbines have been installed.
The farm is a joint project between Ørsted and Skyborn Renewables, which is a co-owner.
The Trump administration has previously tried to stop several offshore wind projects in the United States.
Back in August, Ørsted and its partner Skyborn Renewables were ordered to stop the construction of Revolution Wind. At the time, the order was also justified by concerns about national security.
The two partners filed a lawsuit against the US government. In September, they received a judge's order allowing construction to continue.
Revolution Wind is one of two offshore wind turbine projects off the US East Coast that have been affected by the US order. Sunrise Wind is the second.
A complaint has also been filed with regard to that project, which Ørsted wants to have granted suspensive effect.
Jacob Pedersen, head of equity research at AL Sydbank, calls the decision on Monday "really good news".
- This could mean a less difficult path towards completion for Revolution Wind, even though the past year has taught us that you should never say never when it comes to the Trump administration's attempts to derail offshore wind projects, he writes in an analysis.
- At the same time, the lifted construction halt saves Ørsted half of the construction halt costs of approximately 275 million kroner per month.
- And in our opinion, it reduces the risk of a complete shelved project, which would cause Ørsted a total loss of approximately 20 billion kroner.
/ritzau/
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