On Monday, President Donald Trump paused the leases for five major offshore wind projects due to “national security risks.” The renewable energy industry isn’t the only sector that will be impacted by this decision.
After more than a decade of little change, U.S. energy consumption is rising again. That’s largely due to the power demand of AI data centers, which is projected to increase 22% by the end of 2025. The hope was that these offshore wind projects would provide clean energy to help meet that skyrocketing demand, but now, their futures are uncertain.
“These electrons will power the data centers that will win the AI race,” Dominion Energy, a utility whose offshore wind lease was impacted by the pause, said in a statement. “We stand ready to do what is necessary to get these vital electrons flowing as quickly as possible.”
AI’s clean power supply at risk
The paused leases include Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind 1 in New York, Vineyard Wind 1 in Massachusetts, Revolution Wind in Rhode Island, and CVOW in Virginia. CVOW is the largest offshore wind project in the U.S., with a planned operational capacity of 2.6 gigawatts.
Once they’re up and running, these five projects would produce a combined 5.8 gigawatts of power. That’s enough to serve about 2 million homes, or (according to a rough estimation) several dozen large hyperscale AI data centers.
As the AI industry expands, there is an urgent need to scale renewable energy production to meet its growing power demand. Before the pause, these offshore wind projects were expected to reach full operational capacity within the next two years.
In its statement, Dominion Energy (the utility building CVOW) said that the project is “essential for American national security and meeting Virginia’s dramatically growing energy needs.” Indeed, Virginia is experiencing one of the fastest rates of energy demand growth in the country. It also has the largest concentration of data centers on the planet. This is no coincidence.
Virginians are already feeling the impact of these facilities, particularly in terms of rising energy costs. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the state’s residential electricity bills have increased roughly 30% since 2021.
“Stopping CVOW for any length of time will threaten grid reliability for some of the nation’s most important war fighting, AI, and civilian assets,” Dominion stated. “It will also lead to energy inflation and threaten thousands of jobs.”
A national security threat? Really?
According to a Department of the Interior press release, these offshore wind leases have been paused “due to national security risks identified by the Department of War in recently completed classified reports.” The release states that unclassified federal reports have “long found” that turbines can create radar interference that obscures legitimate moving targets and generates false targets within their vicinity.
Pasha Feinberg, offshore wind strategist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told Grist that turbines can interfere with radar, but all developers are already required to work with the Department of War to evaluate, avoid, or mitigate potential impacts.
Dominion Energy says its two CVOW pilot turbines have been operating for five years without causing any impacts to national security. In fact, the utility argues that CVOW is key to American defense, as it will provide reliable power to many of the nation’s most important military installations.
The Department of the Interior claims the pause will provide time to work with leaseholders and state partners to mitigate national security risks. It’s not yet clear what these efforts will look like or what they will accomplish on top of the work that’s already been done to eliminate or reduce the national security impacts of these projects.
What is clear is that the AI boom is driving an increasingly urgent need for renewable energy. By stunting offshore wind development, the U.S. could risk falling behind in the AI race, jeopardizing both technological leadership and the transition to a cleaner grid.
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