US Spent $4 Billion to Cancel Offshore Wind Farm Projects

The US administration has agreed to pay Germany’s energy company RWE another $1.2 billion in compensation to halt one of the country’s major offshore wind energy projects. According to Heatmap News and ixbt.com, the funds will completely shut down wind farm projects planned off the coasts of California, Louisiana and New York. Techcrunch.com reports .

In total, the US administration has so far spent $3.93 billion to persuade contractors to give up their offshore licenses. Under the agreement, RWE is expected to use $900 million of the allocated funds to buy a small stake in a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in Louisiana.

Return to Conventional Energy and Its Consequences

The remaining $300 million is intended to purchase new natural gas turbines to power 15 of the country’s highest-load power plants. Experts say facilities of this type are among the most expensive to operate and the most polluting.

At present, strong global demand for new turbines has created queues and delays extending into the early 2030s. As a result, when these gas turbines will be installed and fully operational remains unclear.

RWE Strategy and the International Market

The canceled projects included a major wind farm planned off the New York coast, which was expected to have a capacity of more than 3 gigawatts. It is being viewed as a significant loss for the country’s clean energy sector.

Nevertheless, RWE has not stopped investing in renewable energy sources in other regions of the world. The German company said it had secured 6.9 gigawatts of new capacity in a recent auction in the United Kingdom.