NUCLEAR: Environmental groups criticize the second nuclear subsidy bill introduced in Pennsylvania saying it continues to divert resources away from sustainable energy sources. (Pennsylvania Capital-Star)
BIOMASS:
• At least four of the six biomass plants in New Hampshire will close because they have failed to enter into contracts with the state’s main utility, Eversource. (Union Leader)
• The closure of a Maine biomass plant has left sawmills without a source for their wood byproducts. (Bangor Daily News)
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TRANSMISSION: Environmental and land use regulators have separate responsibilities and processes than those of utility regulators who are all evaluating a Maine transmission project to import Canadian hydropower. (Bangor Daily News)
SOLAR:
• Siting of large ground-mounted solar arrays has stressed relationships and divided communities throughout Rhode Island. (ecoRI)
• Corning Inc. says it is building its first solar array in New York and eleventh worldwide at its Life Sciences facility in Oneonta. (WETM)
• A 3 MW community solar project in the Hudson Valley in New York is accepting customers for a project now under development. (Hudson Valley 360)
WASTE-TO-ENERGY: A trash-burning plant in northern New Jersey has ceased operations after 30 years online. (LehighValleyLive)
OFFSHORE WIND: Transmission developer Anbaric has asked the New England grid operator for an economic study of offshore wind’s impact under various scenarios of a capacity build-out. (Offshorewind.biz)
GRID: A federal report says that Pennsylvania was the largest exporter of electricity in the Lower 48 states from 2013-2017, averaging 59 million MWh annually. (Tribune-Review)
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ENERGY EFFICIENCY:
• Three utilities in Vermont are offering an additional $500 in weatherization incentives. (VT Digger)
• The Sustainable Energy Fund broke ground on its new headquarters, the first net-zero-energy building in the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. (Lehigh Valley Business)
COMMENTARY:
• A union official says if New Jersey doesn’t expand natural gas supplies the cost of energy will soar and the most vulnerable residents will suffer. (NJ Spotlight)
• Clean energy developed in northern Maryland can’t reach more populated areas of the state without a new 7-mile transmission line, according to an electrical workers union. (Cecil Daily)
• Three Mile Island will continue to have a complicated relationship with its immediate area in Pennsylvania, regardless of the outcome of legislation intended to save it, a newspaper observes. (Press and Journal)
• Former Gov. Tom Ridge says it is critical to support the state’s nuclear energy fleet to preserve energy diversity and security. (Post Gazette)