• Dominion Energy, a regulated U.S. utility pushing into offshore wind, has seen short interest double to 4.8% of float ($2.5B).

• Ørsted, the world’s largest offshore-wind developer, remains heavily shorted at 8.8% ($734M) even after a $9B recapitalization.

• Across utilities and developers, rising rates, rising costs, and Trump-era policy shifts are reshaping the green-energy trade.

The green boom hits a wall of rate reality—and a political headwind in Washington.

Dominion Energy ($52B market cap): Short sellers continue pressing the stock despite almost no volatility. Current short interest stands at 36.6M shares (4.8% of float; $2.5B notional), more than double January levels. The pressure comes even as Dominion’s share price is up ~12% YTD, underscoring a positioning-led skepticism toward its 2.6 GW offshore-wind buildout in a high-rate, high-cost environment where execution risk is rising faster than cash flow.

Ørsted (167B DKK market cap, ~26B USD): Even after a recapitalization equivalent to half its pre-announcement market value, shorts have not meaningfully covered. Latest data show 39M shares short (8.8% of float; $734M notional). The stock is down ~58% YTD, held back by U.S. policy pressure, sustained impairments, and the valuation drag created by a 67% discounted rights issue.

Macro Pressure: Together, Dominion and Ørsted illustrate a broader shift: green-investment optimism colliding with the hard math of higher discount rates, higher construction costs, and a sharp reversal in U.S. federal support. Europe, meanwhile, is delaying targets and debating consumer tolerance for higher power prices.

In a momentum-driven market, capital reliably migrates toward what’s working—and away from what’s not. For much of the past decade, renewable developers and utility “green pivots” benefited from low rates, abundant subsidies, and a political tailwind strong enough to mask structural project risks. That regime has flipped. The Trump administration’s energy agenda has shifted policy incentives toward fossil-fuel development, paused offshore-wind leasing, and injected deep regulatory uncertainty into clean-energy pipelines.

Dominion’s story is one of quiet conviction: a more than doubling in short interest this year in a stock that barely moves, with borrow costs still sitting at low single-digits and ample lendable supply—conditions that make the trade both cheap and sticky. Ørsted’s is one of loud distress: a forced recapitalization, political shocks, project halts, and a brief spike in borrow fees ahead of the rights issue as demand surged, followed by a rapid normalization once the new shares hit the loan market. The name is now back in the easy-to-borrow bucket even as short interest remains elevated.

But the underlying theme is the same. The net-zero buildout is being repriced under new macro and political realities, and S3’s real-time positioning analytics surface that shift long before price does. The era of “easy green optimism” is over—and the market is already reallocating.

To stay ahead of the next turn in the wind-energy trade, monitor positioning with S3’s real-time short-interest data and analytics.

Want to know more? Access this data in real time using S3’s BLACK APP & BLACK MAP

The information herein (some of which has been obtained from third party sources without verification) is believed by S3 Partners, LLC (“S3 Partners”) to be reliable and accurate. Neither S3 Partners nor any of its affiliates makes any representation as to the accuracy or completeness of the information herein or accepts liability arising from its use. Prior to making any decisions based on the information herein, you should determine, without reliance upon S3 Partners, the economic risks, and merits, as well as the legal, tax, accounting, and investment consequences, of such decisions.