Ohio’s largest solar project waits for the OK

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

SOLAR

• Developers hope to move forward after about two years of regulatory and legal hurdles with an 800 MW solar project with 300 MW of battery storage in Ohio, a state notoriously hostile toward clean energy. (Canary Media)

• The developer of a denied 1,000-acre solar project in southern Michigan sues, claiming the township’s denial was discriminatory and violated local zoning rules. (MLive)

UTILITIES

• Ohio consumer advocates raise concerns over AES’ potential sale to private equity firm BlackRock, which invests in data center companies and could have interests on several sides of the electricity business. (Cleveland.com)

• A DTE Energy-funded group sues the city of Ann Arbor and its city clerk, claiming that the city certified an insufficient number of petitions that could result in voters adopting a municipal utility to replace DTE. (Michigan Public)

DATA CENTERS

• Michigan regulators considering DTE Energy’s proposed power supply contracts with a hyperscale data center outside Detroit aim to ensure they include adequate protections for ratepayers. (Crain’s Detroit)

• A developer plans to complete the first phase of a 75-MW data center near Dayton, Ohio, in the coming months as some residents push to halt future projects. (WYSO)

WIND

• A federal judge rules in favor of a Nebraska county after a developer and local landowners claimed the county’s ban on wind and solar projects violated the company’s protected use of the property. (News Channel Nebraska)

GRID

• A FirstEnergy subsidiary had yet to complete portions of a state-ordered grid corrective action plan when the utility experienced a new round of outages this year, a progress report shows. (Cleveland.com)

COAL

• The Department of Energy issues a fifth extension for an emergency order keeping a western Michigan coal plant online past its May 2025 retirement date. (Michigan Public)

OIL & GAS

• About 1,100 barrels of produced water spills in northwestern North Dakota, which inspectors say has been mostly recovered. (KXNET)

BIOFUELS

• U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) says passing an allowance for the year-round sale of E15 ethanol will require compromises for small oil refiners to gain enough support in the Senate. (South Dakota Searchlight)