A Solar Flare-Up in New York, Battery Aftershocks in California

1. Columbia County, New York – A Hecate Energy solar project in upstate New York blessed by Governor Kathy Hochul is now getting local blowback.

• Last week, the Hochul administration granted many solar projects their renewable energy certificates, including Hecate’s Shepherd’s Run solar project in the town of Copake. Shepherd’s Run has struggled for years with its application process and was previously rejected by state land use regulators.
  
• This certificate award has now inflamed longstanding local criticism of the project, which has persisted due to its proximity to schools and concerns about fire risk.
  
• We’ll find out whether this flare-up will cause more headaches when the state’s Renewable Energy Siting office completes reviewing Hecate’s application in 60 days.

2. Sussex County, Delaware – The battle between a Bethany Beach landowner and a major offshore wind project came to a head earlier this week after Delaware regulators decided to comply with a massive government records request.

• Last year Edward Bintz, a former tax attorney living in South Bethany, appealed Delaware’s approvals for a substation that would connect to the U.S. Wind offshore wind project known as MarWind.
  
• At a hearing this Tuesday, Bintz successfully got a state environmental appeals board to order the release of the entire administrative record around the substation’s approval – as in, all emails and other government correspondence related to the decision.
  
• This is a tactic that may not lead to immediate legal victories, but will certainly play into future opposition of the project by giving new data and sources for activists to utilize in the public square.

3. Fayette County, Pennsylvania – A Bollinger Solar project in rural Pennsylvania that was approved last year now faces fresh local opposition.

• There’s a fresh petition by locals to the township and the town’s zoning hearing board rejected a request for a zoning change last week. If you remember, this county previously restricted solar in more than 30 of its municipalities, hardly the sign of a friendly county.

4. Cleveland County, North Carolina – Brookcliff Solar has settled with a county that was legally challenging the developer over the validity of its permits, reaching what by all appearances is an amicable resolution.

• Cleveland County denied Brookcliff’s permit, leading the developer to sue – a fight that it won. The county appealed but is now dropping that protest in a deal that will allow the project to move forward with new setbacks and a $100,000 payment by Brookcliff to the county.
  
• “The settlement marks the beginning of a professional and forward-looking relationship,” the county said in a press release, “as both parties focus on their respective missions and contributions to the community.”

5. Adams County, Illinois – The solar project in Quincy, Illinois, we told you about last week has been rejected by the city’s planning commission.

• We explained to you that Summit Ridge Energy’s project in the town would face hurdles because the project is just outside the city limits and will not pay city taxes because of a loophole related to land ownership.
  
• However, Quincy has authority here – and this week recommended denying a special use permit to the project after a packed hearing full of opponents including neighbors that would border the project.

6. Pierce County, Wisconsin – AES’ Isabelle Creek solar project is facing new issues as the developer seeks to actually talk more to residents on the ground.

• A petition against the project has now gained almost 500 signatures, a large total for a local petition in a rural area. AES has held an open house for locals and told the media it’s seeking to increase communication and chat with would-be neighbors… but this has simply touched off a war of op-eds.
  
• This shouldn’t surprise anyone who uses Heatmap Pro: Pierce has a 99 opposition intensity index, essentially ensuring a single peep from a renewables company is going to spark backlash…even though a project has never been contested here before.

7. Austin County, Texas – We have a couple of fresh battery storage wars to report this week, including a danger alert in this rural Texas county west of Houston.

• Issues here seem to stem from a battery storage project proposed in the town of Bellville, where an On.Energy proposed BESS facility sparked a push to ban new storage projects in the county. This is part of a widening backlash to these projects in Texas, as conservative activists in the state are reportedly galvanizing behind the BESS backlash.

8. Esmeralda County, Nevada – The Trump administration this week approved the final proposed plan for NV Energy’s Greenlink North, a massive transmission line that will help the state expand its renewable energy capacity.

• BLM’s decision this month to greenlight the review sparked an immediate legal challenge from local wildlife conservation advocates, who said the project’s impacts in Esmeralda County specifically will have an undue impact on protected species and habitat.

9. Merced County, California – The Moss Landing battery fire is having aftershocks in Merced County as residents seek to undo progress made on Longroad’s Zeta battery project south of Los Banos.

• Merced County Planning Commission approved the project’s conditional use permit in February. But after activists stormed a recent public hearing before the commission, an opposition Facebook group – Los Banos Says NO – stated that “while there has been no official announcement,” there have been “strong indicators suggesting that development of the ZETA B.E.S.S.” may have been “halted.”
  
• Zeta needs one more approval from the Merced County Board of Supervisors, which has not scheduled a vote but is anticipated to take action in the next few months.