The offshore wind power industry is successfully navigating tempestuous conditions not caused by the weather.

In December, the administration suspended leases for five large-scale offshore wind projects under construction along the East Coast, due to what it said were national security risks identified by the Pentagon.

The action affected the leases for the Vineyard Wind 1, Revolution Wind, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind 1 development projects. These projects are located off the coasts of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Virginia and New York.

Project developers and state governments took legal action to fight the suspensions, and all have received favorable rulings, allowing them to move forward. Dominion Energy, developer of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, was the first to sue. The judge in that case issued a preliminary injunction in January, which allowed the project to move forward.

Also in January, judges allowed construction to continue on the Revolution Wind and Vineyard Wind projects.

On March 23, Dominion announced that the first commercial turbine at the CVOW site had been switched on. The turbine generated about 15 megawatts (MW) of power. The project is about 70% completed, and construction continues. When finished, it will be what Dominion describes as the “the largest wind project offshore the United States.” It will have a generating capacity of 2.6 gigawatts.

Meanwhile, two of the other projects have reached important milestones. Also in March, Orsted Wind announced that the Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island had begun sending power to the grid. When completed, the project will have a capacity of 704 MW, which is enough electricity to power more than 350,000 homes and businesses.

Finally, in March, physical construction on Vineyard Wind, which had begun sending power onshore two years earlier, reached completion with the installation of the last turbine. The 62-turbine wind farm has a capacity of 800 MW.