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Hotspots

Renewables Developers Get Sweaty Palms Across America

Here are the week’s top conflicts around clean energy in the U.S.

Map of renewable energy conflicts.
Heatmap Illustration

1. Barnstable County, Massachusetts – The SouthCoast offshore wind project will now be delayed for at least four years, developer Ocean Winds said on Friday, confirming my previous reporting that projects Biden seemed to fully approve were still at risk from Trump.

  • Biden’s Interior Department had said in December the SouthCoast project was “approved.” But according to this federal permitting data clearinghouse, the project still needs clearances from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as well as the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers. We previously reported the Army Corps of Engineers had all but frozen wetlands permitting for wind projects. Jury’s out on whether that has changed.

2. Albany County, New York – A judge in this county has cast a cloud over tax abatement calculations for essentially all solar and wind projects in the state.

  • In a ruling this week, Albany Supreme Court judge Joshua Farrell ruled the implementation of a recent state law giving tax incentives to solar and wind developers was unconstitutional. In his opinion, Farrell wrote the state legislature had exceeded its powers and failed to sufficiently define how renewable energy credits, or RECs, and investment tax credits should be used.
  • This will create incredible uncertainty for developers across the state, according to an analysis of the ruling published yesterday by law firm Hodgkins Russ. Their takeaway? It’s likely New York Attorney General Letiticia James appeals the ruling and considers it stayed until the appeal can be processed, but this will hardly provide comfort to industry, which is already reeling from the Trump effect.
  • “On the merits,” the law firm stated, “the decision creates continued uncertainty over how to value and assess renewable energy projects. Now, there is increased risk and exposure to both renewable energy developers, who may have higher assessments and higher real property taxes for their projects, and local taxing jurisdictions who will be forced to expend legal fees defending assessment challenges.”

3. Greene County, North Carolina – No more new solar farms here, at least for now.

  • This county enacted a moratorium this week on new solar farm permits for two years pending the completion of a solar zoning ordinance. It’s a quick step-change from when county officials approved a special use permit for a NextEra last month. Then again, the backlash to that project was so loud it forced the county to issue a public statement telling residents it had no involvement itself in the project or solicit its construction.

4. Logan County, Ohio – Sayonara, Grange Solar.

  • Open Road Renewables has canceled the Grange Solar agrivoltaics project amid local opposition and a recent recommendation from staff on the Ohio Power Siting Board to reject crucial permits.

5. Fannin County, Texas – The battery backlash we’ve warned you is on the horizon has spread to the small town of Savoy, north of Dallas, where residents are protesting en masse against an Engie battery storage project under construction.

  • Like elsewhere in Texas, it’s unclear there’s any way for the project to be stopped by local opposition. But I anticipate that as more cases of Texas battery fights make headlines, it carries the risk of state legislation or other forms of policy response from Texas regulators.

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Q&A

The Renewable Energy Investor Optimistic About the Future

A conversation with Mary King, a vice president handling venture strategy at Aligned Capital

The Q&A subject.
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Today’s conversation is with Mary King, a vice president handling venture strategy at Aligned Capital, which has invested in developers like Summit Ridge and Brightnight. I reached out to Mary as a part of the broader range of conversations I’ve had with industry professionals since it has become clear Republicans in Congress will be taking a chainsaw to the Inflation Reduction Act. I wanted to ask her about investment philosophies in this trying time and how the landscape for putting capital into renewable energy has shifted. But Mary’s quite open with her view: these technologies aren’t going anywhere.

The following conversation has been lightly edited and abridged for clarity.

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Hotspots

Democratic Climate Hawk Fights Battery Storage Project

And more news around renewable energy conflicts.

The United States.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

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.

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Spotlight

The Trump Solar Farm Slowdown

Permitting delays and missed deadlines are bedeviling solar developers and activist groups alike. What’s going on?

Donald Trump and solar panels.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

It’s no longer possible to say the Trump administration is moving solar projects along as one of the nation’s largest solar farms is being quietly delayed and even observers fighting the project aren’t sure why.

Months ago, it looked like Trump was going to start greenlighting large-scale solar with an emphasis out West. Agency spokespeople told me Trump’s 60-day pause on permitting solar projects had been lifted and then the Bureau of Land Management formally approved its first utility-scale project under this administration, Leeward Renewable Energy’s Elisabeth solar project in Arizona, and BLM also unveiled other solar projects it “reasonably” expected would be developed in the area surrounding Elisabeth.

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