Empire Wind project will cover 80,000 acres of sea 15 miles south of Long Island - Equinor/via Reuters

Donald Trump has cleared the path for a $5bn (£3.8bn) wind farm off New York that could power half a million homes.

The Empire Wind project to build 138 giant wind turbines, each three times the height of the Statue of Liberty, was blocked by the US Interior Department last month.

The move infuriated developer Equinor and the Norwegian government, its main shareholder, as it immediately imposed costs of $50m a week to keep its contractors and suppliers on site while doing nothing.

Mr Trump has now rowed back and lifted the block after meeting Jonas Gahr Stoere, Norway’s prime minister, and Jens Stoltenberg, its finance minister, in Washington.

They are understood to have reminded him of the extent of Equinor’s investment in the US – mostly in oil and gas.Donald Trump with Norwegian PM Jonas Gahr Stoere. The decision to block Empire Wind infuriated Norway’s government - Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Anders Opedal, the Equinor president and chief executive, thanked the pair “for their support at a critical time” after they “raised the situation with the US administration”.

The decision to block Empire Wind had caused consternation in the US and in the global renewables industry, as it had been approved only after multiple lengthy assessments of its costs and environmental impacts.

It suggested no other project was safe from a Trump intervention – a risk too great for many investors.

Ørsted, a Danish company with advanced plans for two other windfarms off the US east coast, instantly lost 40pc of its share value – a decrease of $10bn.

Mr Trump has repeatedly made the bizarre claim, with no known evidence, that offshore wind turbines are killing whales “in numbers never seen before” and that they “kill all the birds”.

The US president issued an executive order on his first day in office pausing new leasing and permits for wind projects, which he claimed were ugly, expensive and harmful to wildlife.

In April, Doug Burgum, the US interior secretary, told Equinor to also halt construction of Empire Wind – covering 80,000 acres of sea 15 miles south of Long Island. He said the Biden administration had approved it without proper analysis of the environmental impacts.

Equinor purchased the Empire Wind lease during Trump’s first administration in 2017, and the project was approved under former president Joe Biden in 2023.

Turbines to rise 900 ft above sea level

The project, which will use wind turbines from Vestas, is 30pc complete, according to the company. The machines will rise 900ft above sea level, whereas the Statue of Liberty is just 305ft tall.

Equinor generated huge interest from lenders keen to finance the project because of the high and guaranteed returns under the 25-year agreement with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

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The deal to supply electricity from Empire Wind to New York, agreed in June 2024, is at a strike price of $155.00 (£116) per megawatt hour – which is far higher than the amounts on offer in the UK.

The US has four operating offshore wind farms with three more under construction, besides Empire Wind.

Ørsted owns both Sunrise Wind off the coast of New York and Revolution Wind off the coast of Rhode Island. Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind is also under way.

“This project delivers on the energy ambitions shared by the United States and New York by providing a vital new source of power to the region,” said Molly Morris, the president of Equinor Wind US.

“Empire Wind brings supply chain investments in states across the nation including New York, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Texas and South Carolina.”

Erik Milito, the president of trade body the National Ocean Industries Association, welcomed the move, saying it would “activate American shipyards, create high-quality jobs, and accelerate the build-out of infrastructure needed to deliver reliable, domestic energy to the East Coast”.

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