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Hotspots

Battery Fears Hit Nebraska and New York

And more of the week’s biggest conflicts around renewable energy development.

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1. Cass County, Nebraska — Local permits for a 260+ megawatt NextEra solar project have been stalled for at least two months, we can exclusively report.

  • The Cass County Planning Commission held a special meeting Monday on NextEra’s application for the project. Meeting minutes aren’t public yet and a record of the gathering may not be public until at least next week, but staff in the county zoning office confirmed with me on the phone that commissioners tabled the application for 60 days.
  • Why was it tabled? According to one anti-NextEra attendee’s post to Facebook, it was NextEra’s desire to add battery storage to the project. “Voters and commission members jumped all over him about [how] unsafe these lithium ion batteries are and, if they catch on fire, how they are nearly impossible to extinguish,” wrote Dave Begley of Omaha, Nebraska. “The Commission tabled the application over concerns about batteries.”
  • Cass County has restricted solar development before, passing an ordinance in 2023 with property distance requirements. A NextEra project developer told Energy News Network last year 40%-50% of the acreage it has leased for the project would be for setbacks from roads, drainage, and trees.
  • This upper-middle class, white, and conservative community outside of Omaha is also predicted to be a relatively difficult place to build a renewable energy project, based on Heatmap Pro’s modeling of polling, demographic, and economic data. Strong opposition to battery storage, in particular, was likely:

    Batteries.Battery opinion modeling in Cass County, Nebraska.Heatmap Pro Screenshot

  • NextEra did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

2. Westchester County, N.Y. — Speaking of battery blues, a New York state senate race has become imbued with the politics surrounding energy storage, demonstrating how politicians are trying to take advantage of fire fears.

  • Gina Arena, a Republican running for a state senate seat in the Hudson Valley, on Monday published an open letter calling for East Point Energy to abandon its plans for a large lithium battery plant in the district.
  • “If the lithium battery farm were to be built, it would constitute an extraordinary danger to thousands of nearby residents who would have to shelter in place for days in the event of a fire,” she wrote.
  • This is part of a growing trend I’m observing in local and state politicians leveraging adverse reactions to renewables projects for their own gain. Such is the case for the California battery project we covered in our first edition of The Fight, and the Oak Run agri-voltaic project we featured last week.
  • Whether these campaigns succeed depends on many factors including political party and region. But these gambits can be influential.
  • Case in point: The example of Nick Newport, a local pizza shop owner who E&E News reported this week recently won a GOP primary for a Georgia county board of commissioners seat in part on opposition to water access for a Hyundai EV plant.

3. Georgetown County, S.C. — Sunrise Renewables is reportedly delaying a request for zoning approval to build two solar farms in the county amidst blossoming local opposition to development.

  • The solar farms were supposed to receive a public hearing in the Georgetown County planning commission last week but it was postponed after the county commission got “scores of letters and emails” against development, according to the Coastal Observer, a local paper in South Carolina.
  • The investment firm behind Sunrise Renewables is Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, which also owns 50% of the Vineyard offshore wind project.

4. Carroll County, Maryland — Carroll County Commissioners are poised today to oppose a solar farm in the town of Sykesville before the state Public Service Commission on the grounds it conflicts with a county ban on farmland development.

  • “The board maintains its position of protecting owner property rights, local control, land use and permitting authority and the importance of renewable energy while preserving the county’s rich agricultural farmland,” the commissioners said in a press release ahead of the PSC meeting.

5. Stark County, Ohio — The Ohio Power Siting Board last week held two days of testimony-laden hearings in its case over Stark Solar, a 150-megawatt solar farm with battery storage being developed by a subsidiary of Samsung.

Here’s what else I’m watching…

      • In Iowa, Adams County is preparing to update its ordinance against wind projects.
      • In Maine, the town of Trenton has extended a solar moratorium for 180 days.
      • In New York, the town of Somerset has extended its moratorium on battery storage and the town of Duanesburg is extending its anti-battery and wind ordinance.
      • In Virginia, Halifax County is apparently slow in processing solar project applications despite lifting its moratorium.

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      Spotlight

      All Eyes Are On Texas as Anti-Renewables Bills Advance

      Plus, what a Texas energy veteran thinks is behind the surprising turn against solar and wind.

      Texas statehouse.
      Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

      I couldn’t have a single conversation with a developer this week without talking about Texas.

      In case you’re unaware, the Texas Senate two days ago passed legislation — SB 819 — that would require all solar and wind projects over 10 megawatts to receive a certification from the state Public Utilities Commission — a process fossil fuel generation doesn’t have to go through. The bill, which one renewables group CEO testified would “kill” the industry in Texas, was approved by the legislature’s GOP majority despite a large number of landowners and ranchers testifying against the bill, an ongoing solar and wind boom in the state, and a need to quickly provide energy to Texas’ growing number of data centers and battery manufacturing facilities.

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      Hotspots

      Battery Fights Burst into Full View

      And more of the week’s most important conflicts around renewable energy.

      Map of renewable energy fights.
      Heatmap Illustration

      1. Westchester County, N.Y. – Residents in Yonkers are pressuring city officials to renew a moratorium on battery storage before it expires in July.

      • Battery fire fears predictably are the primary issue, per a local news report this week, which stated at least one project proposed by Saw Mill River Energy Storage is on hold pending the resolution of a study commissioned by local officials.

      2. Atlantic County, New Jersey – Sorry Atlantic Shores, but you’re not getting your EPA permit back.

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      Q&A

      Why Unions Can Be Key to Projects Getting Permits

      A conversation with Mike Barnwell of the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights

      Mike Barnwell of the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights
      Heatmap Illustration

      Today’s conversation is with Mike Barnwell at the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights, a union organization more than 14,000 members strong. I reached out to Barnwell because I’d been trying to better understand the role labor unions could play in influencing renewables policy decisions, from the labor permitting office to the fate of the Inflation Reduction Act. So I called him up on my way home from the American Clean Power Association’s permitting conference in Seattle, where I gave a talk, and we chatted about how much I love Coney Island chili in Detroit. Oh, and renewable energy, of course.

      The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

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