$35 million in offshore wind funding goes unused

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Northeast Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

OFFSHORE WIND

• A Massachusetts program offering up to $35 million in tax breaks to stimulate the development of an offshore wind supply chain in the state has had no applicants since it was created in 2022. (CommonWealth Beacon)

• Ørsted, the developer behind the Revolution Wind project off Rhode Island, announces plans to lay off a quarter of its workforce and refocus its business on Europe. (CNBC)

FEDERAL ACTION

• The Trump administration’s energy funding cuts hit three projects on Cape Cod, including research to improve wind forecasting for offshore wind farms and the development of an AI-controlled wave energy system. (CAI)

• A Connecticut project investigating ways for areas with excess solar and storage to share capacity with nearby neighborhoods also loses federal funding. (Connecticut Public Radio)

ELECTRIFICATION

• The Boston Housing Authority announces a pilot project in which it’ll install the startup Gradient’s small window-unit heat pumps at a public housing complex. (Bloomberg)

• New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani says he would have the city use its bulk purchasing power to buy heat pumps and then distribute them to building owners to help them comply with local regulations capping carbon emissions. (Crain’s New York Business)

• Republican state legislators in New York ask Gov. Kathy Hochul to delay for five years the implementation of mandates for electric vehicles and all-electric construction. (WGRZ)

• Massachusetts’ transportation department recommends directing $850 million to the Boston-area transit authority for projects including a 200-vehicle electric bus maintenance facility. (Boston Herald)

• The Maryland Energy Administration offers $4.9 million in grants to help school districts buy electric school buses and charging infrastructure. (news release)

SOLAR

• Baltimore County is set to switch on its largest solar project to date, a 15,000-panel array atop a closed landfill. (WYPR)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Residents of New Haven, Connecticut, raise concerns about emissions and odors coming from three industrial fuel tanks on the city waterfront. (New Haven Independent)

UTILITIES

• A trade group for investor-owned utilities questions whether grid operator PJM’s capacity auction can ensure adequate power supply as data center development drives demand growth. (Utility Dive)

TRANSMISSION

• Officials from Maryland’s Carroll County ask the Trump administration to intervene to stop a planned transmission line that local residents fiercely oppose. (CBS News)

• Grid operator ISO New England receives six proposals to increase transmission capacity from northern Maine, which will enable planned new onshore wind farms to export power to the rest of the region. (RTO Insider)

NEW FROM CANARY

• Chart: In a first, world gets more power from renewables than coal — Dan McCarthy

• Base Power hauls $1B for mass deployment of huge home batteries — Julian Spector

• Is Trump about to squash America’s carbon-removal moonshot? — Maria Gallucci

• America’s biggest offshore wind farm will be online in six months — Clare Fieseler

• How data centers can move fast without breaking things — Jeff St. John