A Vestas wind turbine near Baekmarksbro in Jutland.
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European wind power stocks tumbled Wednesday after President-elect Donald Trump said he would prevent the construction of new turbines.
“We’re going to try and have a policy where no windmills are being built,” Trump told reporters at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida on Tuesday afternoon.
The Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas Wind Systems and Danish wind developer Orsted fell about 7% on Wednesday in the wake of Trump’s remarks.
The president-elect went on a lengthy attack against wind turbines during Tuesday’s news conference, arguing that they are too expensive, require subsidies and lack public support.
Trump’s opposition to wind power creates further challenges for an industry that has already struggled in the face of high interest rates that have raised the cost of developing new projects. In late 2023, for example, Orsted took a $4 billion write-down and canceled two offshore wind projects off the coast of New Jersey.
Still, wind power has expanded in the U.S., growing from 2.4 gigawatts in 2000 to 150 gigawatts by April 2024, according to data from the Energy Information Administration. Electricity generation from wind hit a record in April 2024 and beat generation from coal-fired plants, according to EIA data.
