Empire Wind Slips to 2027 as US-Built Vessel Delays Bite Equinor

First power at Equinor's 810-megawatt Empire Wind project off New York has slipped into the first half of 2027, pushed back several months by delays on U.S.-built support vessels. The Norwegian energy company confirmed the revised schedule Thursday alongside its third-quarter 2026 results, even as it pegged the project at roughly 80% complete.

The culprit isn't the turbines or the foundations. All 54 foundations are in the seabed, and the offshore substation and cable work are finished. What's missing is the Jones Act-compliant kit that feeds components to the installation vessel — and the American shipyards building it are running late.

"Most of the remaining project scope relates to offshore turbine installation, which is expected to start next year," Equinor Chief Financial Officer Torgrim Reitan told investors. "This is a bit later than planned."

How the installation actually works

Empire Wind uses a turbine installation system developed by Maersk Offshore Wind, centered on the Singapore-built installation vessel Maersk Viridis. Because the vessel is foreign-built, the Jones Act bars it from carrying turbine components between U.S. points. So the project depends on specially designed U.S.-built barges and tugs shuttling components from the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal out to the vessel offshore.

The barges connect directly to Maersk Viridis, letting crews transfer components without the installation vessel returning to port. It's an elegant workaround — on paper. In practice, the domestic vessel construction behind it has become the schedule's weak link.

Maersk Viridis itself arrived off Pascagoula, Mississippi, in August for testing and preparations. Since then, the delays on the U.S.-built support fleet have pushed the whole turbine campaign to the right.

What does this change for Equinor's numbers?

Not the total bill, apparently. Equinor said it doesn't expect any change to the project's total capital expenditure, though some spending shifts from 2026 into 2027. The company has previously put total investment, including the redevelopment of South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, at roughly $7.5 billion — about $15,000 for each of the 500,000 New York homes the project is meant to power once operational.

The tax credit math also survives intact. Equinor expects about $2.5 billion in U.S. investment tax credits: roughly $2 billion recognized in 2027 and the remaining $500 million in 2028. The revised construction schedule won't affect that timing, the company said.

For context on scale: 810 MW and 54 turbines sitting about 14 miles south of Long Island make Empire Wind one of the largest offshore wind projects under construction in the United States.

The political backdrop hasn't helped

The vessel delay is only the latest chapter in a turbulent stretch. The Trump administration first ordered work stopped in April 2025, citing concerns over the federal permitting process. That order was lifted a month later.

A second suspension came in December 2025, when the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management halted construction on Empire Wind and four other offshore wind projects over national security concerns. Equinor challenged the order in federal court and won preliminary relief allowing construction to continue.

In its third-quarter statements, Equinor said the court dismissed the case on September 30, 2026, after the suspension order expired. That matters commercially: the dismissal eliminated the risk that a $2.7 billion project loan could become repayable within 12 months as a result of the order.

The shipbuilding bottleneck looms larger

Empire Wind's experience points to a structural problem for the broader U.S. offshore wind buildout. The Jones Act's U.S.-build requirement means every project of this type leans on a domestic shipbuilding base for specialized tonnage — barges, tugs, feeders — that has limited capacity and, as this delay shows, limited speed.

The turbines are largely ready. The seabed work is done. The schedule now rests on American yards delivering the vessels that connect the two. Expect domestic shipbuilding capacity — not permitting or turbine supply — to be the variable that decides whether the next round of U.S. offshore wind projects hits their first-power dates.