1. Nantucket County, Massachusetts – The SouthCoast offshore wind project will be forced to abandon its existing power purchase agreements with Massachusetts and Rhode Island if the Trump administration’s wind permitting freeze continues, according to court filings submitted last week.
- SouthCoast is a crucial example of a systemic dilemma I reported on months back: Wind projects the Biden administration said it fully permitted will likely still be delayed by a blanket permitting freeze because wind energy requires such large infrastructure that projects need regular green lights from the federal government for new activities.
- In case you missed it, the anti-wind permitting freeze has been a continued issue for SouthCoast and has led to scrapped negotiations on future power deals with Massachusetts.
2. Tippacanoe County, Indiana – This county has now passed a full solar moratorium but is looking at grandfathering one large utility-scale project: RWE and Geenex’s Rainbow Trout solar farm.
- The 120 mega-watt Rainbow Trout facility is the only project allowed to continue under the moratorium. But it still requires permits, and it now faces a two-month delay for a zoning hearing after officials and concerned neighbors pointed out the project includes floodplains.
- This is only the latest in a severe multitude of counties restricting or outright banning solar energy in Indiana in some way or another. Jay County, for example, enacted a moratorium through April of next year to supposedly develop a new restrictive ordinance. Almost half of all counties in Indiana now have a restrictive ordinance or moratorium impacting renewables development, according to Heatmap Pro data.
3. Columbia County, Wisconsin – An Alliant wind farm named after this county is facing its own pushback as the developer begins the state permitting process and is seeking community buy-in through public info hearings.
- Unfortunately for Alliant, opposition around other wind projects in southern Wisconsin and neighboring Iowa is inflaming and energizing the fight against this new Alliant project. I’d highly suggest monitoring the Facebook group for opponents of the Pattern Energy Upwinds proposed wind farm, which tracks new wind energy proposals in this interstate area and flagged this project to send activists that way.
4. Washington County, Arkansas – It turns out even mere exploration for a wind project out in this stretch of northwest Arkansas can get you in trouble with locals.
- RES Group is in the initial stretch of sketching out a new potential wind facility in this county bordering Oklahoma. Even the process of approaching landowners about property deals is upsetting neighbors, prompting local news reports about how RES hasn’t consulted them enough.
- If this strikes you as a little bit of an overreaction, that’s because Washington County has a Heatmap Pro opposition score of 75 and its employment mix includes a heavy dose of farming and hospitality workers – the exact recipe for a renewables backlash.
5. Wagoner County, Oklahoma – A large NextEra solar project has been blocked by county officials despite support from some Republican politicians in the Sooner state.
- The Persica solar farm has been in development since 2021 and received an endorsement from state Rep. Mark Chapman, the Republican vice chair of the state House Utilities Committee, who told the county it would be a “prudent” financial decision and give ample tax revenue for local schools.
- But fears of environmental, visual, and social impacts have won out in Wagoner, leading the county board of commissioners to reject a request from NextEra to rezone the project area away from being purely for agricultural purposes.
- It’s worth noting that Wagoner is only a few counties away from Washington County, Arkansas, and suffers a 90 opposition score in the Heatmap Pro database – ergo, you should maybe think twice before developing a project here.
6. Skagit County, Washington – If you’re looking for a ray of developer sunshine on a cloudy day, look no further than this Washington State county that’s bucking opposition to a BESS facility.
- NextEra’s been trying to build a large battery storage project here for years and Skagit County initially approved their facility in January.
- Opposition grew in the wake of the Moss Landing fire incident and activists have sought to appeal the decision made earlier in the year, arguing the project application was incomplete and needed revisions. This week that appeal was rejected by county planners and NextEra’s project will proceed as expected.
- Per media reports, the fight over battery storage in Skagit will now move to a different project proposed by Tenaska that is reportedly near a salmon creek. The county is also exploring ways to satiate opponents, including restrictions for projects on agricultural land.
7. Orange County, California – A progressive Democratic congressman is now opposing a large battery storage project in his district and talking about battery fire risks, the latest sign of a populist revolt in California against BESS facilities.
- Rep. Mike Levin – one of the leading climate hawks in Congress – submitted a letter to the California Energy Commission in late May opposing Engie’s Compass Energy Storage Project in San Juan Capistrano.
- “I have also been a longtime proponent of smart planning and siting of these projects,” Levin wrote in the letter. “I do not believe that the application to build the Compass Energy Storage Project on its currently proposed site meets these same ‘smart from the start’ principles I have long advocated for at the federal level.”
- Levin’s letter was accompanied by a joint press release with a local Orange County supervisor Katrina Foley that stated both of them were now working on “legislative remedies to properly zone BESS facilities, as well as safety protocols” for battery fire risks.
- Orange County enacted a BESS moratorium shortly after the now-infamous Moss Landing battery fire disaster. Ordinarily this would have stopped Compass Energy in its tracks, but Engie is pursuing an approval through the state’s new opt-in program that allows developers to bypass local moratoria.
- Levin’s letter is now a test: will the new state regulatory process side against opposition from one of its most prominent advocates for the renewable energy industry in Washington? This may be a true challenge for public trust in this program.
