Europe added 8.8 GW of wind power capacity in the first half of 2026, yet the latest industry outlook still puts the EU on course for roughly 342 GW by 2030, well below the 425 GW benchmark associated with its renewable energy ambitions. Growth is continuing. The harder question is how much of the next wave can be financed, connected and used when the electricity is available. Europe’s wind future will depend increasingly on decisions made beyond the turbine factory.

Donald Trump’s hostility toward wind energy has become too persistent to explain as a disagreement over the price of electricity. He objects to the appearance of turbines, attacks their reliability and subsidies, and has used presidential power to restrict their development. His record supports an explanation that combines a personal property dispute, an energy agenda centered on fossil fuels, and the political usefulness of treating wind as a symbol of everything he dislikes about climate policy.

An offshore wind project starts spending money long before its turbines produce electricity. Developers need surveys, engineering, equipment orders, port access and vessels capable of transporting and installing enormous components at sea. Suppliers make commitments of their own, often years ahead of construction. When federal policy leaves the future of a project uncertain, the consequences travel through that entire chain. A delayed permit can unsettle a vessel reservation. A cancelled lease can weaken the case for a port expansion.

For a year the story of US clean energy policy looked like a straight line downhill. Credits cut, grants cancelled, offshore wind ordered to stop. Look closer and the line has kinks in it, and most of them were put there by federal judges. CrossGov.com, a site that covers US government with a federal focus, has just published four posts that trace what’s actually left of federal support for renewables and electric vehicles.

An Coimisiún Pleanála has written to the operator of Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg, Co Clare, asking it to redo the ecological paperwork behind a ballroom. Clare planners approved the building back in February. It’s a single-storey hall of about 1,240 sq m, seating 320, replacing the marquee the resort currently throws weddings in. The approval carried a condition about Vertigo angustior, the 2mm narrow-mouthed whorl snail that lives in the dunes behind the course and is listed under Annex II of the EU Habitats Directive.

The gap between the US and the rest of the world on offshore wind has widened into a chasm. While Europe and Asia are expanding auctions, the Trump administration has spent 2026 systematically paying developers to walk away from federal offshore wind leases entirely. The buyout pattern. In March 2026, the administration reached an agreement with French energy company TotalEnergies to cancel its offshore wind leases in the New York Bight and Carolina Long Bay regions — the US refunded $928 million in lease fees, and TotalEnergies agreed to invest an equivalent sum into fossil fuel production in Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, while pledging not to develop any new US offshore wind projects.

France has taken a major step toward its energy transition with the selection of the consortium led by TotalEnergies, alongside RWE, as the winner of the Centre Manche 2 (AO8) offshore wind tender. Located more than 40 kilometers off the coast of Normandy, this 1.5 gigawatt project will be the largest renewable energy development in France’s history. Once operational, the wind farm will generate around 6 terawatt-hours of green electricity annually, enough to power over one million households, at a competitive rate of €66 per megawatt-hour.

Avangrid, Inc. (NYSE: AGR), a prominent sustainable energy company and part of the Iberdrola Group, along with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), a leader in green energy investment, has announced that the Vineyard Wind 1 project is now delivering over 136 Megawatts (MW) to the electric grid in Massachusetts. This achievement marks Vineyard Wind 1 as the largest operating offshore wind project in the United States. With 10 turbines currently in operation, totaling approximately 136 MW, the project generates enough power to supply 64,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts.