NY to open faster fifth offshore wind solicitation

OFFSHORE WIND: New York plans to open a fifth offshore wind project solicitation, this time with a faster timeline, after deciding not to pursue bids from an earlier round; the state also will use $200 million to support its offshore wind supply chain. (news release; E&E News, subscription)

ALSO: Speakers at a wind research symposium discuss how innovation and in-state project development can help take New Jersey’s offshore wind industry to the next level. (RTO Insider, subscription)

FOSSIL FUELS: The U.S. EPA fines a South Baltimore oil recycling facility for breaking federal clean air and water laws; the facility’s operations are now restricted by the settlement agreement. (Baltimore Sun)

RENEWABLE POWER:

• A new Maine law will require the state’s agriculture agency to issue permits and higher fees on solar and wind projects on five or more acres of ​“high-value agricultural land” starting late this summer. (Livermore Falls-Advertiser)
• Federal agriculture officials issue just over $657,000 in rural renewable energy development grants for Maine businesses. (news release)

SOLAR:

• Construction begins on what is planned as the largest solar canopy and energy storage project in New York: a 12 MW array with 7.5 MW of storage at a long-term parking lot at John F. Kennedy International Airport. (NYDN)
• Cohoes, New York, kicks off construction on a 3.2 MW floating solar pilot project on the city’s water reservoir that should offset its entire municipal power bill. (Troy Record)
• A New Jersey appeals court rules that a state incentive program for solar expansion on farmland must be capped at up to 5% of a given county’s preserved farmland. (Bloomberg Law)
• The U.S. EPA’s Solar for All program issues a $62.45 million grant to Washington, D.C. for low-income solar projects, funds the city says will help 19,000 low- and moderate-income households. (news release)
• A Connecticut solar developer installs a roughly 140 kW solar array on the roof of a Biddeford, Maine, courthouse. (news release)
• A Canadian energy developer sells a 76.7 MW portfolio of 12 New York community solar projects to a Houston energy transition firm. (news release)

GRID: A New York City agency approves funding support for the construction of four battery energy storage systems in Queens and Staten Island. (SI Live)

BUILDING:

• Decarbonizing New England’s residential rental housing, even with financial incentives in place, is difficult because landlords often aren’t paying the utility bills but would be responsible for funding upgrades. (NHPR)
• Shipping mass timber to the Northeast from the southern states and abroad is one of the reasons the climate-friendly building style hasn’t taken hold in the region despite a building decarbonization push. (Connecticut Public Radio)
• A Maine utility is pushing back against a whole-house heat pump incentive offered by a quasi-state agency, claiming to the state utility commission that it would hurt low-income residents. (Portland Press Herald)

VEHICLES:

• Officials celebrate the opening of Vermont’s first electric vehicle charging infrastructure funded by a federal program, a four-charger station in Bradford. (NBC 5)
• The public school system of Holyoke, Massachusetts, will share a $4.2 million grant with four other districts in the state to electrify its buses. (Mass Live)
• Erie County, New York, plans to swap diesel fuel in its heavy equipment for a biofuel made from leftover restaurant fryer oil and other wasted food oils and fats. (Buffalo News)

COMMENTARY: A member of Germany’s federal legislature explains why Europe doesn’t need Chester, Pennsylvania’s already environmentally overburdened neighborhoods to be further sacrificed for liquefied natural gas export development. (Philadelphia Inquirer)