New Hampshire regulators approve largest solar farm yet

SOLAR: New Hampshire utility regulators approve a utility’s plan for what will reportedly be the largest solar farm in the state, an exception to a rule that generally prohibits utilities from owning generation facilities. (NHPR)

ALSO:
• Some utilities say their expertise will be sidelined if New Jersey regulators allow a proposed rule blocking them from owning or operating projects in a planned state community solar program. (RTO Insider, subscription)
• Connecticut’s attorney general looks into numerous complaints about a solar company failing to meet its contractual obligations, like repairing customers’ broken panels. (WFSB)

FOSSIL FUELS:
• Con Edison closes its controversial peaker plants in New York City’s Queens borough after completing a six-mile-long transmission line that brings renewably generated electricity to the site. (PIX 11, news release)
• In Connecticut, United Illuminating still hasn’t finished a remediation project at the site of a former coal- and oil-burning power plant in the six years since signing an agreement with the state. (New Haven Independent)

GRID:
• New Hampshire’s governor says he supports the development of the Twin States Clean Energy Link, a proposed power line using existing and new power lines to direct 1.2 GW of hydroelectricity from Canada into New England. (NHPR)
• Utilities and state regulators, including from New Jersey, argue against PJM Interconnection’s proposal to postpone four capacity auctions. (Utility Dive)
• To support regional biodiversity, Con Edison plans to restore the land around a Staten Island, New York, substation to attract monarch butterflies, among other land management initiatives. (SI Live)

OFFSHORE WIND:
• Ørsted notes in its quarterly earnings report that its global offshore wind earnings are at ​“an all-time high.” (Offshore Wind Biz)
• Federal energy officials will conduct an environmental review of a planned floating offshore wind energy research site in the Gulf of Maine. (news release)
• A Connecticut planning board says a traffic study is needed to understand the impact of trucks servicing a marine fueling site for vessels servicing the offshore wind industry. (Standard-Times)

CLIMATE: The Delaware River Basin Commission considers water storage options to support the region if a future climate emergency disrupts availability. (WHYY)

BIOENERGY: Marathon Petroleum and a Massachusetts biotechnology firm sign a non-binding agreement to develop a ​“low-carbon intensity” renewable fuel feedstock. (news release)

UTILITIES: Maine’s secretary of state publishes a newly rephrased ballot referendum question about creating a customer-owned utility after a court decides the initial wording was potentially confusing. (Portland Press Herald)

NUCLEAR: A federal agency investigates why one of five diesel back-up generators at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear facility in southern Maryland suffered a weeklong mechanical failure. (Maryland Matters)