A study at the University of Connecticut’s Avery Point campus measuring the impact of wind turbines on marine life is on pause after the energy project Revolution Wind was ordered to stop, according to a project manager.
Environmental samples used for the study are not being collected after the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued a stop-work order to the Swedish developer of Project Wind, Ørsted. BOEM’s reason for stopping the almost-completed renewable energy source was to protect national security interests, according to the order published by The Daily Caller.
The decision to stop collecting the environmental samples used in the study was made after a meeting between the Connecticut Initiative on Environmental Research of Offshore Wind and Ørsted, according to the CIEROW Project Manager Paola Batta Lona.
“The stop-work order issued by the [BOEM] for the Revolutionary Wind site is unfortunate and disruptive to ongoing research; we hope that there will be a resolution in the near future,” said Lona.
Revolution Wind is not the only offshore wind project where approved plans were walked back or scrapped entirely. Empire Wind, which is located south of Long Island, was issued a stop-order from the BOEM on April 16, 2025, alleging that the approval process was rushed. On May 20, the project was allowed to resume, according to AP News. Administration officials are skeptical that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul agreed to approve any new gas pipelines for the continuation of Empire Wind, according to the New York Times, but she denies these claims.
In a New England Council webinar about the regional impact of the stop-work order, the president of an energy industry consulting firm spoke about how close Revolution Wind was to completion. Richard Levitan, the president of Levitan and Associates, said the stop-order of Revolution Wind was more comparable to the decommissioning of the completed Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant in 1994 than the turmoil at Empire Wind.
“Years from now, following this dormancy period, will these developers who have taken write-offs, taken their impairment charges, come back to complete the facilities that they have presently?” Levitan responded when asked about how much hope there is for Revolution Wind, considering how Empire Wind was resumed.
Abandonment of wind energy projects due to developer frustrations could negatively impact marine life that is being studied at Avery Point through the CIEROW; a wind energy end-of-service guide shows that unused turbines have an environmental impact that can be partially mitigated.
The research conducted at Avery Point through CIEROW had just begun when the fall 2024 semester started, according to The Daily Campus. The research was funded by a $1.25 million grant awarded by Revolution Wind’s developer Ørsted.