Trump Targets Revolution Wind, Nordex Q3 EBITDA Doubles

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Welcome to Uptime News Flash, Industry News, Lightning Fast. Your host, Allen Hall, shares the renewable industry news you may have missed.

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Happy Monday, everyone. Well, a wind farm off Rhode Island is making power today, and every one of its turbines is turning. And Washington wants to take another look at whether it should have been built at all.

This past week, the wind industry asked a simple question. Who is steering?

Starting Rhode Island. Revolution Wind is finished. 65 turbines, 704 megawatts. Power for Rhode Island and Connecticut. It started sending power to the grid this past March. Now the Trump administration wants to reopen its permit. On October 9th, the Justice Department asked a federal court to send the project's approval back to the Interior Department. Interior wants to check again whether that approval followed federal offshore law.

The filing didn't say what was wrong. That permit took more than nine years to win. The project cost about $6.2 billion. And this is the administration's third try. Two stop work orders came first. A federal judge blocked both of them. In both times, he called the government's conduct arbitrary and capricious. That's the same judge who will decide this request. For now, the permit stands and the turbines keep turning. Connecticut officials say reopening old approvals undercuts the certainty that new power plants need.

Orsted owns the project with Global Infrastructure Partners. And that filing landed at a bad time for a deal in the Senate. Because earlier this month, senators from both parties agreed on a permitting bill. They call it the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act. Part of the bill is about certainty. Once a project wins its permits, the government would have a much harder time taking them back. And if it did, developers could be paid back for their losses. Reports say the president told aides he would ease up on Wind to get a deal done. Then came the Revolution Wind filing, and a word of new reviews of two more Atlantic Wind farms. The Democrats who wrote the deal answered quickly. They say the administration must start showing good faith on wind permits.

The White House says it still backs the Senate deal.

The Interior Department says nothing has changed in its approach to offshore wind. And that approach has included stop work orders, lease suspensions, and about $4 billion in buyout deals. So a bill meant to bring certainty is being tested before it even gets a vote. Now let's go over to a company that is steering just fine. Nordex had a quarter to remember. The German turbine maker released early third quarter numbers on Thursday. EBITDA about 278 million euros. And a year ago, that was only 136 million. That's more than doubled. Its margin jumped from 8% to 12.7%, which is a market jump. So Nordex raised its forecast for the year. It now expects a margin of 11.5% to about 12.5%.

The old forecast topped out at 11 And free cash flow for the quarter, 379 million euros. Now Nordex says three things drove these numbers. Better margins and service, strong project work, and risks that it had planned for that mostly never showed up.

Its sales forecast did not change. And full results come out November 5th. Now Western Turbine makers spent years losing money. Nordex is now earning like a healthy industrial company again. Which brings us to a company that is still working on its comeback. Vic Abate is retiring from GE Vernova. Abate has led the company's wind business since 2023 And he's been with GE for 37 years. He will run the wind business through December. And on New Year's Day, he becomes an advisor. He retires later in 2027 And his replacement is Hakan Osman. Now Osman joins GE Vernova on November 1st as Wind Chief in Waiting. He takes over on January 1st. Osman comes from cables and not turbines. He spent most of his career at Prismian. He ran its North American business. He ran its global subsea and transmission projects. 21 factories, a fleet of installation vessels, and next generation high voltage cable. And most recently, he led a grid software company called GridSpertise. GE Vernova's chief executive calls Osman an operator. He says Osman brings operational rigor.

Osman will spend his first two months visiting factories and job sites, and there will be plenty for him to see. GE Vernova is closing out Vineyard Wind, and it is still building Dogger Bank. And it wants its onshore service business to make a lot more money.

So what should wind professionals take from this week? Well, first, finished no longer means safe. Revolution Wind is built and running. Its permits, it's really still in play.