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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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Spotlight

Wind Farm Trump Killed Derails a Major Transmission Line

The collateral damage from the Lava Ridge wind project might now include a proposed 285-mile transmission line initially approved by federal regulators in the 1990s.

The western United States.
Heatmap Illustration/Library of Congress, Getty Images

The same movement that got Trump to kill the Lava Ridge wind farm Trump killed has appeared to derail a longstanding transmission project that’s supposed to connect sought-after areas for wind energy in Idaho to power-hungry places out West.

The Southwest Intertie Project-North, also known as SWIP-N, is a proposed 285-mile transmission line initially approved by federal regulators in the 1990s. If built, SWIP-N is supposed to feed power from the wind-swept plains of southern Idaho to the Southwest, while shooting electrons – at least some generated from solar power – back up north into Idaho from Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. In California, regulators have identified the line as crucial for getting cleaner wind energy into the state’s grid to meet climate goals.

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Hotspots

Solar Threats, Quiet Cancellations, and One Nice Thing

The week’s most important news around renewable project fights.

Solar Threats, Quiet Cancellations, and One Nice Thing
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

1. Western Nevada — The Esmeralda 7 solar mega-project may be no more.

  • Last night I broke the news that the Bureau of Land Management quietly updated the permitting website for Esmeralda 7 to reflect project cancelation. BLM did so with no public statement and so far, none of the companies involved — NextEra, Invenergy, ConnectGen, and more — have said anything about it.
  • Esmeralda 7 was all set to receive its record of decision as soon as July, until the Trump administration froze permitting for solar projects on federal lands. The roughly 6.2 gigawatt mega-project had been stalled ever since.
  • It’s unclear if this means all of the components within Esmeralda 7 are done, or if facilities may be allowed to continue through permitting on a project-by-project basis. Judging from the messages I’ve fielded this morning so far, confusion reigns supreme here.

2. Washoe County, Nevada – Elsewhere in Nevada, the Greenlink North transmission line has been delayed by at least another month.

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Q&A

How Data Center Developers Are Navigating the Battery Fire Freakout

A conversation with Spencer Hanes of EnerVenue

Spencer.
Heatmap Illustration

Today’s conversation is with Spencer Hanes, vice president of international business development for long-duration battery firm EnerVenue and a veteran in clean energy infrastructure development. I reached out to Hanes for two reasons: One, I wanted to gab about solutions, for once, and also because he expressed an interest in discussing how data center companies are approaching the media-driven battery safety panic sweeping renewable energy development. EnerVenue doesn’t use lithium-ion batteries – it uses metal-hydrogen, which Hanes told me may have a much lower risk of thermal runaway (a.k.a. unstoppable fire).

I really appreciated our conversation because, well, it left me feeling like battery alternatives might become an easy way for folks to dodge the fire freakout permeating headlines and local government hearing rooms.

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