Sunrise Wind, a subsidiary of Ørsted, plans to file a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging a lease suspension order issued on 22 December 2025 by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, part of the U.S. Department of the Interior. The filing will be followed by a motion for a preliminary injunction seeking to halt the effects of the order while the case proceeds.
The company states that the lease suspension order is unlawful and that continued enforcement would cause substantial harm to the Sunrise Wind project. Sunrise Wind considers legal action necessary to protect the project’s rights.
The project has secured all required local, state and federal permits following multi-year reviews. As part of the permitting process, Sunrise Wind undertook extended consultations with the U.S. Department of Defense Military Aviation and Installation Assurance Siting Clearinghouse to address potential national security and defence impacts from construction through operation. These consultations resulted in a formal agreement with the Department of War, the Department of the Air Force and Sunrise Wind setting out mitigation measures.
The project is at an advanced stage of construction and is nearly 45 per cent complete. To date, 44 of 84 monopile foundations and the offshore converter station have been installed. Construction of the onshore electrical infrastructure is largely complete, and nearshore export cables have been installed. At the time the suspension order was issued, the project was expected to begin generating electricity as early as October 2026.
On 1 January 2026, Revolution Wind, a joint venture between Skyborn Renewables and Ørsted, made similar filings in the same court.
