EDP Gets Refund After Biden-Era Offshore Wind Leases Revoked, Shifts $5.3B U.S. Plan to Solar and Batteries

EDP recovered the money it paid for offshore wind leases in New Jersey and California after those leases were revoked earlier this year. The company reached an agreement with the Interior Department that returned its investment, Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade, EDP’s CEO, said.

Stilwell d’Andrade said he is monitoring a lawsuit filed this week that challenges a similar refund arrangement granted to TotalEnergies, but he is not yet concerned about the outcome.

The leases had been awarded during the Biden administration. EDP controls one of the world’s largest portfolios of renewable energy projects. S. renewables over the next three years, an amount that represents more than half of its total capital expenditure.

The majority of the new projects will be solar and battery storage facilities. EDP has no immediate plans to pursue additional offshore wind development in the United States. Stilwell d’Andrade said the company is signing contracts with technology companies that require at least a decade of power purchases before construction begins.

EDP recently agreed to supply a large solar farm in Arkansas to Meta. He said the limited supply of projects backed by such long-term contracts is the main constraint on growth, ahead of supply-chain, labor, tax-credit or permitting issues. Stilwell d’Andrade added that current demand is sufficient to offset any political uncertainty.

U.S. data-center projects, often measured in hundreds of megawatts, with smaller European proposals. Europe has experienced two major energy-price shocks in five years linked to events in Ukraine and Iran.

Stilwell d’Andrade said many European countries remain constrained by regulatory processes and have not adopted measures recommended after the first shock. “You’re already in the second crisis and you still haven’t implemented the recommendations of the first,” he said.