Ørsted just axed plans for two New Jersey offshore wind farms – here’s why
New Jersey’s governor is furious because Ørsted canceled two huge offshore wind farms off the New Jersey coast – this is what happened.
Ocean Wind 1 won’t be New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm after all.
In a major reversal, Ørsted says it’s killing the 1,100-megawatt (MW) Ocean Wind 1 and 1,148-MW Ocean Wind 2 projects, just as construction was about to start on Ocean Wind 1. Electrek only just reported on October 12 that Ørsted had put up a $100 million guarantee that it would have Ocean Wind 1 online by December 2025.
In a statement today, David Hardy, group EVP and CEO Americas at Ørsted cited “high inflation, rising interest rates, and supply chain bottlenecks” for the cancellation.
Ørsted says it intends to retain the seabed lease area and consider its best options as part of a US offshore wind portfolio review it’s conducting. It has an update planned for its Q4 2023 results announcement.
And on Ørsted’s earnings call this morning, Ørsted CEO Mads Nipper went into more detail about what defeated the two projects. He told reporters that the biggest reason is “further significant delays on [installation] vessel availability.” He didn’t name the installation vessel company, but the Ocean Wind 1 project has so far been working with vessels belonging to Belgium-based wind farm installer DEME Group.
He went on to explain that a lack of installation vessels would mean a multi-year delay for Ocean Wind 1. That would mean the company would have to re-contract all its project scopes at “expectedly higher prices – that was the reason for the swing.”
In July, to help keep the financially struggling projects afloat, Governor Phil Murphy (D-NJ) signed a law that allowed Ørsted to keep federal tax credits that it otherwise would have had to return to ratepayers.
So, unsurprisingly, Murphy’s pretty angry. New Jersey taxpayers won’t lose funds from the pullout, but the state and its residents are losing a critical source of clean energy, billions of dollars in investments, and thousands of local jobs the two projects were slated to provide.
In a statement, Murphy said:
Today’s decision by Ørsted to abandon its commitments to New Jersey is outrageous and calls into question the company’s credibility and competence.
As recently as several weeks ago, the company made public statements regarding the viability and progress of the Ocean Wind 1 project. In recognition of the challenges inherent in large and complex projects, my Administration in partnership with legislative leadership insisted upon important protections that ensure New Jersey will receive $300 million to support the offshore wind sector should Orsted’s New Jersey projects fail to proceed.
I have directed my Administration to review all legal rights and remedies and to take all necessary steps to ensure that Orsted fully and immediately honors its obligations.
Electrek’s Take
It’s a major setback for sure, seeing how New Jersey has a 7.5 gigawatt (GW) of offshore wind by 2035 target, and there’s also that pesky thing called climate change, but all is not lost. The 1.5 GW Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind project is still moving forward off the coast of Atlantic City, and the state is expected to announce another offshore wind solicitation at the beginning of 2024. Nearly 40 New Jersey advocates released a statement today that reaffirms their support for offshore wind.
And in another bit of news that slightly takes the sting off, Nipper said that Ørsted will move forward on Revolution Wind, Connecticut and Rhode Island’s 704 MW offshore wind farm, as it’s secured an installation vessel – the Scylla – so the company feels “comfortable moving [the project] forward.” The South Fork project in New York State is also quickly progressing.
And one final point: The “grassroots” group in Cape May County that’s been fighting the Ocean Wind projects wants to take credit for their demise. They claim that Ørsted is running scared in “the face of unrelenting opposition” from Cape May County after they recently filed a federal lawsuit.
As I’ve said, I don’t take the Cape May County government’s objections seriously. It’s led by Michael J. Donohue, Republican County chairman, who is “special counsel on offshore wind” to the group. And its counsel has extensive ties to a big-oil-funded legal movement that generally works to stop climate policy.
Further, the group’s “studies” that it cites to back its lies about wind farms killing whales and birds sources aren’t relevant or credible – for example, the noise from one oil tanker is 20,000x more disruptive to ocean life than one stationary wind turbine. There’s more than a whiff of politics, not science, around their objections. They ultimately got what they wanted for now but didn’t cause it.
Read more: The US’s largest offshore wind farm just got the green light
Photo: Ørsted
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Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testifies during a remote video hearing held by subcommittees of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee on “Social Media’s Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation” in Washington, U.S., March 25, 2021.
Handout | Via Reuters
Block jumped more than 5% on Monday, leading a rally in shares of fintech companies as analysts downplayed the threat of JPMorgan Chase’s reported plan to charge data aggregators for access to customer financial information.
The recovery followed steep declines on Friday, after Bloomberg reported that JPMorgan had circulated pricing sheets outlining potential fees for aggregators like Plaid and Yodlee, which connect fintech platforms to users’ bank data.
In a note to clients on Monday, Evercore ISI analysts said the potential new expenses were “far from a ‘business model-breaking’ cost increase.”
In addition to Block’s rise, PayPal climbed 3.5% on Monday after sliding Friday. Robinhood and Shift4 recorded modest gains.
Broader market momentum helped fuel some of the rebound. The Nasdaq closed at a record, and crypto rallied, with bitcoin climbing past $123,000. Ether, solana, and other altcoins also gained.
Evercore ISI’s analysts said that even if JPMorgan’s changes were implemented, the most immediate effect would be a slight bump in the cost of one-time account setups — perhaps 50 to 60 cents.
Morgan Stanley echoed that view, writing that any impact would be “negligible,” especially for large fintechs that rely more on debit, credit, or stored balances than bank account pulls for transactions.
PayPal doesn’t anticipate much short-term impact, according to a person with knowledge of the issue. The person, who asked not to be named in order to speak about private financial matters, noted that PayPal relies on aggregators primarily for account verification and already has long-term pricing contracts in place.
While smaller fintechs that depend heavily on automated clearing house (ACH) rails or Open Banking frameworks for onboarding and compliance may face real pressure if the fees take effect, analysts said the larger platforms are largely insulated.
WATCH: Congress moves to redraw $3.7 trillion crypto market rules, opening door to Wall Street
The global EV market is still charging ahead. According to new numbers from global research firm Rho Motion, 9.1 million EVs were sold worldwide in the first half of 2025, up 28% compared to the same period last year. But not every region is accelerating at the same pace.
China and Europe are doing the heavy lifting
More than half of the world’s EVs this year have been bought in China. That market hit 5.5 million sales in the first six months of 2025 – a 32% jump year-over-year. Around half of new cars bought in China are now electric.
While some Chinese cities’ subsidies have dried up, Rho Motion expects momentum to pick back up later in the year as more funding is released.
In Europe, 2 million EVs were sold in the first half of the year, up 26%. Battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales also rose 26%, thanks in part to affordable models like the Renault 4 (pictured) and 5 entering the market. Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) weren’t far behind, growing 27% year-to-date. Chinese automakers are leaning into PHEVs as a way to work around the EU’s new tariffs on BEVs.
Spain is leading the pack with EV sales soaring 85% so far this year. Its generous MOVES III incentive program was extended in April and has kept sales strong. The UK and Germany are also seeing solid growth – 32% and 40%, respectively. France, however, is slumping. With subsidies cut, EV sales there have dropped 13%.
North America is stuck in the slow lane
Things aren’t looking quite as bright in North America. EV sales in the US, Canada, and Mexico are up just 3% so far this year.
Mexico is the one bright spot, with a 20% boost. The US is up 6%. But Canada is down a whopping 23%.
And things could get bumpier. On July 4, Trump signed Congress’s big bill into law, which axes all the Inflation Reduction Act EV tax credits. Those consumer credits for EVs now officially end on September 30.
Just over half of the EVs sold in the US this year qualified for those credits. Rho Motion predicts a rush in Q3 before the subsidies disappear – and a decline in sales after that.
Rho Motion data manager Charles Lester said, “With Trump’s latest cuts in his ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ the US could struggle to see any growth in the EV market overall in 2025.”
Global EV sales snapshot, H1 2025 vs H1 2024
- Global: 9.1 million (+28%)
- China: 5.5 million (+32%)
- Europe: 2.0 million (+26%)
- North America: 0.9 million (+3%)
- Rest of world: 0.7 million (+40%)
Read more: China breaks records as global EV sales hit 7.2 million in 2025
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Lucid’s electric sedan can drive further, charge faster, and packs more advanced tech than most of the competition. That might explain why it’s leading the segment. The Lucid Air remained the best-selling luxury EV sedan in the US after widening its lead in the Q2.
The Lucid Air is America’s best-selling luxury EV sedan
The 2025 Lucid Air Pure arrived as the “World’s most efficient car” with an EPA-estimated range of 420 miles and a record 146 MPGe.
It just set a new Guinness World Record last week for the longest journey by an electric car after travelling 749 miles (1,205 km) on a single charge.
That record was set in the range-topping Lucid Air Grand Touring model, which is rated for up to 512 miles of EPA-estimated range. On the WLTP scale, it’s rated at 597 miles (960 km). Either way, it still crushed the estimates.
According to second-quarter sales data, released by Kelley Blue Book on Monday, the Lucid Air is still America’s best-selling luxury EV.
Lucid sold 2,630 Air models in Q2, up 10% from the previous year. Through the first half of 2025, Lucid Air sales are up 17% with 5,094 units sold.
Tesla, on the other hand, only sold 1,435 Model Ss during the quarter, 71% fewer than it did in Q2 2024. Tesla Model S sales in the US are down 70% through the first half of the year at 2,715.
Although Porsche Taycan sales were up 32% with 1,064 models sold, the significantly upgraded 2025 model year was expected to see even more demand. Porsche has 2,083 Taycans in the US this year, up just 1% from 2024.
Other luxury EV sedans, such as the BMW i5 (1,434), i7 (820), and the Mercedes EQS (498), experienced steep double-digit sales declines year-over-year.
And it’s not just electric luxury sedans. The Lucid Air is currently outselling many gas-powered vehicles in its segment.
Lucid’s first electric SUV, the Gravity, is also rolling out. Although only five were sold in the second quarter, Lucid is quickly scaling production. Lucid aims to produce 20,000 vehicles this year, more than double the roughly 9,000 it built in 2024.
Earlier today, Lucid’s interim CEO, Marc Winterhoff, confirmed during an interview with Bloomberg that the company expects higher Gravity output in the second half of the year.
The interview was at the grand opening of Panasonic’s new battery cell plant in De Soto, Kansas. Winterhoff said Lucid will start using new cells from the facility, but not until next year.
Lucid’s CEO stressed the importance of establishing a local supply chain, as policy changes under the Trump Administration are taking effect. Lucid and Panasonic are collaborating to localize EV materials, such as graphite. Last month, Lucid secured a multi-year supply agreement with Graphite One for US-sourced Graphite.
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