North Sea offshore wind pact and US rulings highlight diverging policy paths
At the North Sea Summit in Hamburg, Germany, in January 2026, European governments, transmission system operators, and the offshore wind industry agreed an Investment Pact aimed at strengthening planning certainty, mobilising capital, and improving coordination in offshore wind deployment across the North Sea. Participating countries confirmed a long-term target of 300GW of offshore wind capacity by 2050 and outlined a coordinated buildout pathway supported by regulatory and financial measures.
The Joint Offshore Wind Investment Pact for the North Seas is supported by a Heads of State Declaration, an Energy Minister Declaration, and an Industry Declaration signed by more than 100 offshore wind companies across the value chain. Governments committed to improving investment conditions by adopting two-sided contracts for difference as the standard auction mechanism and by removing regulatory barriers to power purchase agreements between electricity producers and corporate consumers. They also agreed to contribute to a collective deployment rate of 15GW per year across Europe during 2031–2040.
Industry commitments focus on cost reduction and supply chain development. The offshore wind sector aims to reduce costs by 30% by 2040 compared with 2025 levels, driven by scale effects, lower capital costs, and further industrialisation supported by clearer project pipelines. The industry also plans to mobilise € 1 trillion in economic activity, create 91,000 additional jobs, and invest € 9.5 billion across manufacturing, port infrastructure, and vessels. Transmission system operators will identify cross-border cooperation projects, including hybrid offshore wind and interconnection projects, with a target of identifying 20GW of economically viable projects by 2027 for deployment in the 2030s.
Together, these commitments reflect a European approach centred on long-term policy alignment, coordinated infrastructure planning, and shared risk between governments, industry and grid operators. The pact is intended to reduce uncertainty for developers and investors while accelerating deployment at a scale consistent with climate and energy security objectives.
A contrasting picture continues to emerge in the USA, where offshore wind development has been shaped by legal challenges and regulatory interventions. In December 2025, the US Department of the Interior ordered an immediate pause on five large offshore wind projects currently under construction along the east coast. Luckily, in recent rulings, federal courts have granted preliminary injunctions that allow construction to resume on all the offshore wind projects that had been halted by suspension orders from federal authorities. The projects that are allowed to continue construction while legal proceedings continue are Vineyard Wind, Sunrise Wind, Revolution Wind, the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, and Empire Wind.
The developers of the US projects have already invested billions in the projects so most likely will do whatever they can to finish them. Dominion Energy has already stated that costs for its Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project have increased to $ 11.5 billion, a $ 300 million increase driven by the federal work suspension and mounting tariff expenses. For future projects and long-term investments, it might look at different parts of the world. The once so promising US offshore wind market is not a reality anymore, and it will take quite a long time before the market can completely recover.
The European pact versus the US’s pausing of projects followed by rulings to resume construction illustrate two different operating environments for offshore wind. In Europe, policy frameworks are being strengthened to provide long-term visibility and coordinated deployment. In the USA, progress is increasingly shaped by legal processes and regulatory uncertainty. These developments highlight how policy stability, regulatory clarity, and institutional coordination are becoming as critical to offshore wind deployment as technology and capital.
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Floris Siteur
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