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Hotspots

Southcoast Wind’s Last Dash

And more of this week’s top fights around renewable energy.

Map of renewable energy fights.
Heatmap Illustration

1. Nantucket County, Massachusetts – The Biden administration is rushing to finish permitting Ocean Winds’ Southcoast Wind project, a joint venture between EDP Renewables and Engie, before Donald Trump returns to the White House. Questions remain as to whether it can be done.

  • Since Election Day, Southcoast Wind has received full environmental review and received a draft EPA air permit last week. We’re still waiting on a record of decision though and until then, all bets are off.
  • Complicating matters is the town of Nantucket, Massachusetts, which is now fighting the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to get more money and benefits in the event the project is fully permitted. They’re worried about blade failures.
  • Legal counsel for the town wrote BOEM on Oct. 30 objecting to the agency’s plans for mitigating potential impacts to the town’s historic properties, arguing the Vineyard Wind blade collapse must be fully investigated before any final approvals are granted.
  • Given how Southcoast Wind is close to the finish line at the federal level, I’m watching to see if this dispute with Nantucket becomes a basis for a permitting reversal in the event it can’t make its way through the process before Trump comes into office.

2. Pittsburg County, Oklahoma – Momentum is building for an anti-wind moratorium in this Oklahoma county home to multiple proposed wind projects.

  • The push for a moratorium is a response to a wind farm proposed by Red Earth Energy, according to the popular anti-wind blog National Wind Watch.
  • Activists this week packed a small meeting room with county officials to pressure them into action after they refused to develop an ordinance blocking wind. You can watch the chaos unfold on this cellphone video posted to Facebook.
  • Reports indicate activists are taking this fight anywhere they can – including county Republican Party meetings – in advance of potential litigation and lobbying state regulators.

3. Benton County, Washington – Remember when we told you advocates were going to sue over Washington state approving the Horse Heaven wind farm project? It’s happening.

  • Tri-Cities CARES was able to get enough money on its own to start the litigation process, although it has not released how much money it was able to fundraise, per local media. It estimates needing at least $200,000 on hand, which is a lot for a grassroots nonprofit.
  • As we previously told you, Tri-Cities CARES is not the group with the strongest standing to win a lawsuit against the state’s approval – that’s the Yakima Nation. The jury’s out as to whether they’ll be joining the activists here.

4. Branch County, Michigan – When a solar farm and a transmission project are the ones fighting, who wins? In the Mitten State, we’re about to find out.

  • NorthStar Clean Energy’s Branch Solar farm in south central Michigan is directly in the path of a proposed transmission line. NorthStar was just granted permission to intervene in the state regulator planning process, allowing them to weigh in on the line’s paths.
  • Plans for the transmission line are expected to be completed by mid-2025.

Here’s what else we’re watching…

In Ohio, a wind farm got a local approval for once: NextEra’s Swan Lake project.

In New Mexico, a county has approved the tax agreement for Orsted’s Blackwater solar project.

In Pennsylvania, a local newspaper’s editorial board has come out against activists that have “put the kibosh to more than a dozen proposed solar farm projects throughout the region.”

In West Virginia, state regulators have approved a Nedpower Mount Storm wind farm after the company reduced its size by more than 40 percent.

In Virginia, local officials are bracing for Virginia Beach traffic jams over constructing the Dominion Energy Coastal Virginia offshore wind project.

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Spotlight

How the Tax Bill Is Empowering Anti-Renewables Activists

A war of attrition is now turning in opponents’ favor.

Massachusetts and solar panels.
Heatmap Illustration/Library of Congress, Getty Images

A solar developer’s defeat in Massachusetts last week reveals just how much stronger project opponents are on the battlefield after the de facto repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Last week, solar developer PureSky pulled five projects under development around the western Massachusetts town of Shutesbury. PureSky’s facilities had been in the works for years and would together represent what the developer has claimed would be one of the state’s largest solar projects thus far. In a statement, the company laid blame on “broader policy and regulatory headwinds,” including the state’s existing renewables incentives not keeping pace with rising costs and “federal policy updates,” which PureSky said were “making it harder to finance projects like those proposed near Shutesbury.”

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Hotspots

The Midwest Is Becoming Even Tougher for Solar Projects

And more on the week’s most important conflicts around renewables.

The United States.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

1. Wells County, Indiana – One of the nation’s most at-risk solar projects may now be prompting a full on moratorium.

  • Late last week, this county was teed up to potentially advance a new restrictive solar ordinance that would’ve cut off zoning access for large-scale facilities. That’s obviously bad for developers. But it would’ve still allowed solar facilities up to 50 acres and grandfathered in projects that had previously signed agreements with local officials.
  • However, solar opponents swamped the county Area Planning Commission meeting to decide on the ordinance, turning it into an over four-hour display in which many requested in public comments to outright ban solar projects entirely without a grandfathering clause.
  • It’s clear part of the opposition is inflamed over the EDF Paddlefish Solar project, which we ranked last year as one of the nation’s top imperiled renewables facilities in progress. The project has already resulted in a moratorium in another county, Huntington.
  • Although the Paddlefish project is not unique in its risks, it is what we view as a bellwether for the future of solar development in farming communities, as the Fort Wayne-adjacent county is a picturesque display of many areas across the United States. Pro-renewables advocates have sought to tamp down opposition with tactics such as a direct text messaging campaign, which I previously scooped last week.
  • Yet despite the counter-communications, momentum is heading in the other direction. At the meeting, officials ultimately decided to punt a decision to next month so they could edit their draft ordinance to assuage aggrieved residents.
  • Also worth noting: anyone could see from Heatmap Pro data that this county would be an incredibly difficult fight for a solar developer. Despite a slim majority of local support for renewable energy, the county has a nearly 100% opposition risk rating, due in no small part to its large agricultural workforce and MAGA leanings.

2. Clark County, Ohio – Another Ohio county has significantly restricted renewable energy development, this time with big political implications.

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Q&A

How a Heatmap Reader Beat a Battery Storage Ban

A conversation with Jeff Seidman, a professor at Vassar College.

Jeffrey Seidman.
Heatmap Illustration

This week’s conversation is with Jeff Seidman, a professor at Vassar College and an avid Heatmap News reader. Last week Seidman claimed a personal victory: he successfully led an effort to overturn a moratorium on battery storage development in the town of Poughkeepsie in Hudson Valley, New York. After reading a thread about the effort he posted to BlueSky, I reached out to chat about what my readers might learn from his endeavors – and how they could replicate them, should they want to.

The following conversation was lightly edited for clarity.

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