Ørsted to pay $125M to New Jersey over canceled wind projects

OFFSHORE WIND: Ørsted will pay New Jersey $125 million — or under half of what the developer had promised — for pulling the plug on two offshore wind projects. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

ALSO:

• Federal ocean energy regulators finish their environmental review of a plan to place 12 floating offshore wind turbines in the Gulf of Maine, finding they would cause no significant impacts. (News Center Maine)
• New Jersey plans to kick off its fifth offshore wind solicitation more than a year earlier than planned, slating it for the second quarter of 2025 instead of the third quarter of 2026. (Riviera)
• Avangrid and Vineyard Offshore will join a Rhode Island public-private partnership aimed at using local businesses for offshore wind project procurement. (PBN)
• At the Barnstable, Massachusetts, beach landing of Vineyard Wind’s power cable, new signs inform passersby of the project’s buried infrastructure. (Cape Cod Times)

TRANSPORTATION:

• Federal officials will grant nearly $1 billion to school districts across the country to help pay for clean school buses, including five in Rhode Island, 21 in Pennsylvania and nine in New Hampshire. (Rhode Island Current, Pennsylvania Capital-Star, New Hampshire Bulletin)
• Two New York lawmakers discuss the benefits and challenges of successfully converting school bus fleets to cleaner models. (WSYR)

COURTS: New Hampshire and numerous other Republican-led states ask the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent state attorneys general from filing climate lawsuits against fossil fuel majors. (NHPR)

SOLAR:

• Pittsburgh development officials say a $2 million federal grant is the ​“last piece of a funding puzzle” to convert a toxic former steel manufacturing site for a 15-acre solar array. (WESA)
• Pennsylvania’s Washington Township will hold a public meeting to discuss a proposed 5 MW solar array in an agricultural zone that would require a conditional use permit. (Local News 1)
• RWE Clean Energy picks up a 599 MW portfolio of solar and battery energy storage projects that includes a 100 MW project in northeast New York. (news release)
• A developer plans an expedited installation process for a 1.95 MW solar array on a large industrial building in New York. (news release)

BUILDINGS: A Vermont wastewater treatment facility is getting an upgrade that currently includes installing heat pumps to extract heat from wastewater; officials may later use artificial intelligence to further optimize efficiency. (WCAX, NBC 5)

TRANSIT: New York City advocates worry mitigation measures won’t be enough to keep air pollution down in the Bronx and on Staten Island under the upcoming traffic congestion tolling program. (New York Times)

BATTERIES:

• New York’s governor is set to decide whether to sign a legislative package of five measures aimed at reducing battery fires, including tags on chargers that detail best practices. (Newsday)
• Local officials say lithium batteries were the cause of a fire that destroyed a Maine manufacturer’s warehouse over the weekend. (Bangor Daily News)

WORKFORCE: A Vermont electric plane startup is working with vocational schools in the region to help plug the holes in its workforce. (Boston Globe)

RENEWABLE ENERGY: A group of Wiscasset, Maine, residents look to establish a ​“clean energy park” on municipal land, although they’re unsure what types of renewable generation would work best there. (Wiscasset Newspaper)

COMMENTARY: Two climate justice activists say Vermont lawmakers must override the governor’s veto of an updated renewable energy standard because ​“delaying the transition to renewables will cost us far more than this bill ever could.” (VT Digger)