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Hotspots

The Week in Renewable Fights

A rundown of notable battles in the energy transition.

Map of projects.
Heatmap Illustration/Wiki Commons

1. York County, South Carolina  Silfab Solar’s efforts to build a solar panel factory in coastal South Carolina have become a nexus of fear politics in recent weeks, even as the community’s Republican congressman tries to assuage residents’ concerns.

  • Members of the community are concerned about chemicals that will be used at the plant, which will be built near two schools. They also say they’re worried about the risk of fires or explosions.
  • A town meeting about Silfab last week was hosted by Representative Ralph Norman and drew more than a hundred people. It turned into a fury venting session. You can watch the drama play out in full here.
  • On his part, Norman seems to be straddling the line, trying to assure residents the project will be safe while recognizing that many are fretting about the project.
  • Move Silfab, a group campaigning to relocate the plant, is holding a community organizing event this Saturday.

2. Knox County, Nebraska  North Fork Wind LLC last week joined with landowners to sue Knox County in federal court over expansions to a stepback ordinance that the company says were expressly designed to kill their 600-megawatt wind farm.

  • Knox County changed a 2,000-foot stepback into a 6,600-foot one earlier this year after a push by self-described “Wind Watchers,” what appears to be an ad hoc collection of activists that are opposing wind energy projects across Nebraska. Upon examining social media pages for some “Wind Watchers” groups, I can tell you there’s a lot of misinformation about wind and solar in their content feeds.
  • I’m watching ordinances and legal challenges like these closely. They’re quickly becoming an easy way for projects to get gummed up in administrative red tape over the concerns of fear-founded groups like Wind Watchers.

3. Madison County, Ohio  What could be the largest agri-voltaics project in the U.S. may be poised for a showdown in the Ohio Supreme Court.

  • Savion Energy’s 800-megawatt Oak Run solar project was re-approved by the Ohio Power Siting Board last week after a lengthy battle with local opposition.
  • Critics then told local press they’re looking at taking this decision to the state Supreme Court as a last stand against the project.
  • This is happening as the same court will soon decide in two cases whether the Power Siting Board can reject solar projects based solely on whether there’s local dissent.
  • Agri-voltaics are crucial to the future of solar energy and present an opportunity for sustainable renewable development on farmland. Keep an eye out for a much longer dive into the opposition to Oak Run in next week’s edition of The Fight.

4. Nantucket County, Massachusetts If you thought the Vineyard Wind debacle would go away, the fishermen want you to know you’re sadly mistaken.

  • The New England Fisherman’s Stewardship Association – a fishing trade group formed last year to oppose offshore wind development – held a protest on the water outside Avangrid’s project last week that got picked up by Fox News.

5. San Luis Obispo County, California  I’m monitoring resistance to an ongoing study by Port San Luis and Clean Energy Terminals in central California on whether to become an offshore wind operation and maintenance hub.

  • The U.S. will need many more offshore wind manufacturing sites to meet its deployment goals. While no projects off California’s coast are currently underway, building infrastructure at sites like Port San Luis will be essential to building a state offshore wind industry.
  • Right now, local officials are facing opposition from REACT Alliance, a California grassroots group that as far as I can tell has little local support but is linked with the growing network of anti-offshore organizations. While in its infancy, the fact they’re so plugged in with other more successful and vocal organizations is definitely a concern.

Here are a few more hotspots I’m watching…

  • In Nebraska, a utility-scale solar project by National Grid Renewables is sparking anger from a neighboring town with a population of 120 people. There’s scant info about the project online. (Dear NGR folks, please email me back about this project! I want to learn more.)
  • In Iowa, the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline received a crucial construction permit from the state utilities commission. But there’s a catch: the project must first get clearance from regulators in North and South Dakota before the build. And there’s going to be many, many hurdles to that.

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Hotspots

Judge, Siding With Trump, Saves Solar From NEPA

And more on the week’s biggest conflicts around renewable energy projects.

The United States.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

1. Jackson County, Kansas – A judge has rejected a Hail Mary lawsuit to kill a single solar farm over it benefiting from the Inflation Reduction Act, siding with arguments from a somewhat unexpected source — the Trump administration’s Justice Department — which argued that projects qualifying for tax credits do not require federal environmental reviews.

  • We previously reported that this lawsuit filed by frustrated Kansans targeted implementation of the IRA when it first was filed in February. That was true then, but afterwards an amended complaint was filed that focused entirely on the solar farm at the heart of the case: NextEra’s Jeffrey Solar. The case focuses now on whether Jeffrey benefiting from IRA credits means it should’ve gotten reviewed under the National Environmental Policy Act.
  • Perhaps surprisingly to some, the Trump Justice Department argued against these NEPA reviews – a posture that jibes with the administration’s approach to streamlining the overall environmental analysis process but works in favor of companies using IRA credits.
  • In a ruling that came down on Tuesday, District Judge Holly Teeter ruled the landowners lacked standing to sue because “there is a mismatch between their environmental concerns tied to construction of the Jeffrey Solar Project and the tax credits and regulations,” and they did not “plausibly allege the substantial federal control and responsibility necessary to trigger NEPA review.”
  • “Plaintiffs’ claims, arguments, and requested relief have been difficult to analyze,” Teeter wrote in her opinion. “They are trying to use the procedural requirements of NEPA as a roadblock because they do not like what Congress has chosen to incentivize and what regulations Jackson County is considering. But those challenges must be made to the legislative branch, not to the judiciary.”

2. Portage County, Wisconsin – The largest solar project in the Badger State is now one step closer to construction after settling with environmentalists concerned about impacts to the Greater Prairie Chicken, an imperiled bird species beloved in wildlife conservation circles.

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Spotlight

Renewables Swept Up in Data Center Backlash

Just look at Virginia.

A data center.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Solar and wind projects are getting swept up in the blowback to data center construction, presenting a risk to renewable energy companies who are hoping to ride the rise of AI in an otherwise difficult moment for the industry.

The American data center boom is going to demand an enormous amount of electricity and renewables developers believe much of it will come from solar and wind. But while these types of energy generation may be more easily constructed than, say, a fossil power plant, it doesn’t necessarily mean a connection to a data center will make a renewable project more popular. Not to mention data centers in rural areas face complaints that overlap with prominent arguments against solar and wind – like noise and impacts to water and farmland – which is leading to unfavorable outcomes for renewable energy developers more broadly when a community turns against a data center.

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Q&A

How the Wind Industry Can Fight Back

A conversation with Chris Moyer of Echo Communications

The Q&A subject.
Heatmap Illustration

Today’s conversation is with Chris Moyer of Echo Communications, a D.C.-based communications firm that focuses on defending zero- and low-carbon energy and federal investments in climate action. Moyer, a veteran communications adviser who previously worked on Capitol Hill, has some hot takes as of late about how he believes industry and political leaders have in his view failed to properly rebut attacks on solar and wind energy, in addition to the Inflation Reduction Act. On Tuesday he sent an email blast out to his listserv – which I am on – that boldly declared: “The Wind Industry’s Strategy is Failing.”

Of course after getting that email, it shouldn’t surprise readers of The Fight to hear I had to understand what he meant by that, and share it with all of you. So here goes. The following conversation has been abridged and lightly edited for clarity.

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