Offshore wind turns the corner on a turbulent year
Even before Donald Trump took office and declared his war on renewables, the wind industry was fighting an uphill battle. The Biden administration helped fast-track low-carbon energy in the United States, but other factors like persistent inflation, supply chain challenges and rising interest rates – exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – changed the economics of once-promising wind projects.
Adding insult to injury, Trump has eliminated incentives for the industry, barred new solar and wind projects from federal land and waters, and delayed nine already-approved offshore wind projects that were set to provide electricity to nearly five million households. “Windmills,” Trump said in August, “we’re just not going to allow them. They are ruining the country.”
It is in this adverse context that the seven wind companies on Corporate Knights’ Global 100 ranking are operating, and it is worth noting that nearly all continued to grow their wind installations around the world through 2025.
ERG achieves balanced growth
The top-ranked company this year was ERG, an Italian power generator based in Genoa. Founded in 1938, the company bought up oil refineries through the middle of the last century. In the early 2000s, ERG launched a renewables arm, rapidly grew that side of the business, and finally sold off the last of its fossil fuel assets in 2024 to become a “pure play” wind and solar operator. According to its 2024 sustainability report, about 92% of the company’s energy output comes from wind power; the other 8% comes from solar.
Despite offloading its oil and gas facilities, ERG’s power output increased about 25% between 2022 and 2024, from 4,460 gigawatt-hours to 5,992. “ERG not only weathered the downside, but they were also able to increase the amount of electricity they generated and sold,” notes Michael Yow, the director of rankings for Corporate Knights. “It’s a pretty impressive management feat.”
ERG has pursued a strategy of regional diversification, building and buying wind assets in nine European countries and in the United States, where it acquired a 75% stake in a 224.4 megawatt wind farm in Iowa and a 92.4 megawatt solar plant in Illinois in 2023. Before Trump, the United States was a good place to undertake wind projects. The World Wind Energy Association reports that the country added 2.1 gigawatts of wind-power capacity in the first half of 2025, trailing only India and China. The added capacity came mainly from project pipelines secured under Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, and the growth will very likely slow down considerably under the Trump administration.
The regulatory uncertainty in the United States has prompted ERG to take a more cautious approach. The company’s strategy now focuses on acquiring working assets with existing power purchase agreements and projects already financed through tax credits. More broadly, ERG describes its growth plan as “value over volume,” concentrating on countries where it already operates and upgrading existing installations with better equipment.
“Since 2021, ERG has nearly doubled its asset portfolio, growing from approximately 2.1 gigawatts to nearly four gigawatts of installed capacity,” CEO Paolo Merli says. “This result was achieved through a balanced mix of organic developments and acquisitions.”
Plenty of runway for growth
Of all the wind companies on the Global 100 list, Ørsted (#9) has been most affected by the difficult market in the United States, where setbacks on U.S. projects forced it to cut about 2,000 jobs, or a quarter of its workforce, and focus on European projects. Wind companies like Ørsted that primarily develop offshore projects have struggled more than onshore wind developers because installing turbines in coastal waters requires a specialized global supply chain that’s more vulnerable to bottlenecks and disruptions. As one of the cheapest ways to produce power, onshore wind is an easier sell, though offshore enjoys its own advantages, like more reliable wind speeds.
China has far outpaced other markets in adding wind capacity, installing 51.4 gigawatts of wind capacity in the first half of 2025. Other Asian markets like South Korea, the Philippines and Japan have introduced new frameworks for permitting offshore wind projects. Suzlon Energy, a wind turbine manufacturer based in India, is new to this year’s ranking and took 10th spot. The company reported 74% revenue growth in the last quarter of 2025.
The war in Ukraine prompted a reckoning around European reliance on Russian oil and gas. European markets have since been under pressure to accelerate their transition to renewables like wind power. The ranking companies are now rising to the occasion even as they make forays into new markets.
Tristan Bronca is a magazine writer and editor based in Newmarket, Ontario.
The Weekly Roundup
Get all our stories in one place, every Wednesday at noon EST.
The post Offshore wind turns the corner on a turbulent year appeared first on Corporate Knights.