US Wind pulls out of wind turbine manufacturing at Sparrows Point

US Wind, the company behind a proposed offshore wind development off the coast of Ocean City, no longer plans to develop components for wind turbines at Baltimore County’s Sparrows Point — at least not for now.

The Baltimore-based company turned over its lease at the Tradepoint Atlantic site in Sparrows Point to Anduril Industries, the shipbuilding company whose arrival was heralded on Tuesday by a visit from President Donald Trump (R).

It comes as US Wind’s only offshore wind project, planned for Ocean City’s coastline, continues to face legal headwinds and roadblocks from the Trump administration.

At the tail end of President Joe Biden’s (D) administration, the US Wind project received its last federal permit, but the town of Ocean City challenged it shortly thereafter. And after Trump’s inauguration, the federal government that once defended the permit permit for the project signaled its intent to revoke it, spurring a new round of legal wrangling.

Sparrows Point shipyard could bring thousands of jobs, promises billions in investments

In a statement issued Tuesday, US Wind CEO Jeff Grybowski said his company “jumped at the opportunity” to bring “near-term” jobs to the Sparrows Point site as US Wind faces delays. The site will be taken over by Anduril, which plans to invest $3.7 billion at the former home of Bethlehem Steel to construct a new shipbuilding facility, Arsenal-2, that is expected to bring an estimated 3,100 permanent new jobs to Maryland.

“Our offshore wind plans, like many other similar projects in the U.S., are delayed due to legal disputes and uncertainty created by federal agencies. So, we are shifting our focus to helping Anduril build a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Sparrows Point,” Grybowski’s statement said. “This new development ensures that job creation and economic development can proceed apace at [Tradepoint].”

The facility at Tradepoint had been expected to fabricate steel components for wind turbines, including towers and monopiles, and create hundreds of manufacturing jobs. Last year, the Trump administration pulled back $47.4 million in grant funding that had been awarded during the Biden administration for the steel facility, called Sparrows Point Steel, but US Wind said at the time that it planned to move forward with the steel fabrication site anyway.

In a statement on Wednesday, Rebecca Rehr, the director of climate policy and justice at the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, bemoaned the news about Sparrows Point Steel, calling it another negative effect of Trump administration policies on clean-energy companies.

“Maryland faces rising energy demand and electricity bills. We have been consistently disappointed that the Trump administration doesn’t see the value across the supply chain for the clean energy industry, and continues to single out wind when wind is working,” Rehr said.

“We are seeing job and growth opportunities across clean energy sectors, yet this administration continues to block these projects, which are the fastest and cheapest to deploy,” her statement said.

— This story may be updated.