Equinor Blames US Shipbuilding Delays for Late Offshore Wind Installation
The Norwegian energy company Equinor told investors and the media on Wednesday that its offshore wind project, Empire Wind, is approximately 80 percent complete but running behind schedule due to delays in U.S. shipbuilding. It said the delays were outside its control and that it now expects the wind farm off the coast of New York to deliver first power by mid-2027.
“On Empire Wind, despite the stop work orders, and all of that, we have been able to progress this and develop this, and it hasn’t really slowed us down much,” said CFO Torgrim Reitan during the investor conference call on October 28. He reported that top side construction is now expected to begin in late December, and the company expects first power during the first half of next year.
Equinor selected an installation system working with Maersk Wind, which built its installation vessel, Maersk Viridis, at Seatrium in Singapore. The massive 40,000 gross ton vessel had its own challenges in construction, with disputes with the shipyard. Those issues were resolved, and the vessel arrived off Pascagoula, Mississippi, in August. It is undergoing training and testing for its unique barge system.
The WTIV is registered internationally and does not meet the Jones Act requirements, but its installation system calls for a series of tugs and specially designed barges to ferry the material from the staging point in Brooklyn, New York, to the WTIV. The barges lock into the WTIV as part of the unloading process.
The company told investors that it is waiting for the tugs and barges, which are being built in the United States. They blamed this for creating “a few months' delay” for the project.
They reported that 54 turbine foundations are complete, as is the offshore substation and cabling work. Empire Wind is located 14 miles south of Long Island and is designed to provide 810 MW, which will come ashore in Brooklyn and feed into the local power grid operated by Con Edison.
Empire Wind was one of five offshore wind projects already under construction, which the Trump administration has challenged. A stop-work order was issued in mid-2025 just as the company was set to start offshore installation. Reports said the Prime Minister of Norway became involved, and the Trump administration was reported to have cut a deal with New York State to permit the project to resume.
Empire Wind was also challenged by the administration with a second stop-work order at the end of 2025 as part of the effort against all five of the under-construction projects. Each of the projects went to court and received preliminary injunctions permitting them to resume work.
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Equinor had previously abandoned plans for a second phase of the Empire Wind project. It cited rising material costs and the opposition to offshore wind from the new administration.
Empire Wind is one of two projects under construction for New York State. Ørsted is building Sunrise Wind (924 MW), also located near Long Island. The newspaper Newsday reports that Ørsted also expects to begin commissioning turbines late this year and reach commercial operations in the second half of 2027 for Sunrise Wind.
