Offshore Wind’s Mask Finally Comes Off

The green fairy tale now seems to be unraveling faster than a faulty wind turbine blade in a Nantucket storm.

On Monday, Aug. 11, 2025, Danish offshore wind giant Ørsted dropped a bombshell, notifying the market it plans a massive rights issue worth up to 60 billion Danish kroner (about $9.4 billion) to prop up its flailing offshore U.S. operations. The plan, which amounts to almost 50% of Ørsted’s market cap, is a desperation move driven by the forces of reality and President Donald Trump’s no-nonsense energy policies.

Ørsted’s stock took a nosedive in the wake of Monday’s announcement, cratering as much as 31.2% in Copenhagen trading, erasing billions in value overnight.

The panic comes as the company is scrambling to fund its Sunrise Wind project — a 924-megawatt eyesore off New York’s coast — and shore up another 8.1 gigawatts of planned capacity through 2027. Ørsted says the cash infusion is a direct response to what it delicately calls “material adverse developments” in the U.S. market.

Translated to plain English, this means Ørsted, whose normal business model would have involved selling a large minority share to investors to raise needed capital, has been unable to find any buyers as Trump’s energy policy revolution takes hold.

President Trump has made no bones about his disdain for the wind industry in general and offshore wind specifically. He promised repeatedly during his 2024 campaign to gut the offshore wind industry, citing its bogus environmental claims and visual pollution, and boy, has he delivered.

His Day One executive orders targeted both onshore and offshore wind, freezing new leases and issuing stop-work orders. That has been followed by more executive branch actions targeting wind, along with language in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to phase out Biden’s heavy subsidies and other preferences for the wind business.

As a result, Ørsted found itself unable to offload a stake in Sunrise Wind because no sane investor wants in on a venture that’s now politically radioactive and never had a business model capable of surviving without heavy government subsidies. Farm-down deals like the one Ørsted had planned now lie dead in the water in the new energy policy reality.

But the truth is that Ørsted has struggled to make a go of U.S. offshore wind for years. Back in 2023, under the Biden administration’s subsidy-fueled frenzy, the company ate $5.6 billion in impairments on projects like Ocean Wind 1 and 2, leading to cancellations and a CEO ouster. Inflation, supply chain woes and unreliable subsidies turned what was supposed to be a green gold rush into a black hole for cash. Now, with Trump at the helm, the mask is off.

CEO Rasmus Errboe, who took over the job from Mads Nipper earlier in 2025, called the situation “extraordinary.” But let’s be honest: Under Mads Nipper, this company made a habit of demanding higher and higher subsidies from governments everywhere it operates in recent years. If anything, calling for more subsidies anytime the going gets rough seems to be a part of Ørsted’s core business planning.

Another reality most will miss where Ørsted is concerned is that the subsidies provided by Biden and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s government were just the tip of the iceberg. The Danish government owns a controlling 50.1% stake in the company, meaning Danish taxpayers are footing the bill for the majority of its operations in any event. If Sunrise Wind goes belly up, the Danish people take the biggest part of the hit.

Amazing, isn’t it?

Meanwhile, back in the U.S., Trump’s suspension of new wind leases is a breath of fresh air for fishermen, whales and anyone tired of seeing their coastlines industrialized for intermittent power that costs a fortune and delivers peanuts.

Ørsted’s latest fiasco is emblematic of the entire renewable scam. Offshore wind is hyped by virtue-signaling politicians as the savior of the planet, but it’s riddled with problems: soaring costs, environmental havoc (just ask the Nantucket folks suing over blade failures), and total dependence on subsidies that vanish when real leaders take charge.

Now, the truth is staring us in the face: the offshore wind fantasy is crumbling, and it’s about time. It’s an industry that richly deserves to be put out of its misery.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.