Maine’s largest-ever procurement of renewable-power contracts was hailed in September as a historic step on a path to reaching ambitious climate change goals. But today, those contracts are under fire from two dissatisfied developers.

General Maine

In a submission on the draft Offaly County Development Plan, the consortium is seeking planning regulations to protect this “significant infrastructure,” pointing out that radio astronomy ...due to I-LOFAR's extreme sensitivity, it is “vulnerable to interference (even as a result of low power emissions) from terrestrial sources such as wind turbines, photo-voltaic inverters, and emissions from switching electronics such as are used in LED lighting.

General Ireland

“I remain extremely frustrated with the state, on the one hand, saying we’re going to have to pay back the $3.5 million dollars, but on the other hand saying we’re not going to help you,” board member Douglas H. Jones said. “The state agencies are not communicating with each other or are speaking from two sides of their face at the same time. I understand that they are different state organizations, but the fact that the DoER [Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources] isn’t willing to allow us to use the 25A procurement law is just unbelievable.” Mr. Jones said the decision has tied the town’s hands, leaving it with no viable way to move forward with disposal of the turbines.

General Massachusetts

The President of the Seneca Nation of Indians is asking the solar developer behind the Horseshoe solar array in Caledonia and Rush to “cease and desist” all activity so it can investigate whether a bone recovered during an archaeological investigation survey is human.

General New York

After a decade of issues regarding the two wind turbines that stand at the wastewater treatment plant, the town is no closer to seeing them dismantled. The town has been working to find ways to either move the turbines for use elsewhere or dismantling and disposing of them completely. The state recently rejected the town’s request under a specific law that would have made it easier to dismantle the turbines without costing millions of more dollars.

General Massachusetts

Northern Ireland Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon has rejected the planning permission for the SSE Renewables’ 118.8MW Doraville Wind Farm in Tyrone. ...Mallon said: “This refusal was a finely balanced decision where I had to weigh up the various benefits with the harm to the local area. I carefully considered both the findings of the independent Public Inquiry alongside the recommendations of my planning officials.”

General Ireland

Mr Stelfox, who holds position in Mountaineering Ireland and Outdoor Recreation Northern Ireland, said the Covid lockdown had shown people wanted to access the outdoors. He said the wind farm proposal was "absolutely outrageous" and would lead to "industrial exploitation" of a landscape which is in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

General Ireland

A controversial Green County wind farm — one of only a handful under development in Wisconsin — has been scrapped. EDF Renewables had planned to build 24 turbines in the town of Jefferson near the Illinois border.

General Wisconsin

The Minister said she was a “huge advocate for renewable energy” but that “in this case 33 wind turbines would cause considerable harm to the landscape interest of a large part of the Sperrin area of outstanding natural beauty and its unique archaeological, cultural and tourism assets”.

General Ireland

The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) approved contracts for 17 renewable power projects on Sept. 22, including a 20-megawatt (MW) wind farm known as Silver Maple Wind in Clifton and a 100-MW solar project in Hancock known as Three Rivers Solar.

General Maine

A manager at a  factory that was building the giant cylinders on which the turbines sit had died of the coronavirus, shutting down the plant and delaying EDF’s work  by five weeks. That and other setbacks — including construction workers at the site in Nebraska contracting the virus — have hampered EDF’s efforts to finish the $374 million project by the end of the year. A prolonged delay could increase costs, threatening the project’s financial viability.

General USA

An expansion at the wind farm in Eastern Kings, which the P.E.I. government said was a go last month, has been denied a permit by the local municipality. In September, Minister of Environment Natalie Jameson approved the expansion subject to 17 conditions drawn from responses from the public.

General Prince Edward Island

"Both the First Minister and the Prime Minister promised a green jobs revolution but they didn't tell anyone it would be exported, and it all amounts to broken promises to workers who needed these yards to be thriving instead of dying. "The fabrication contracts for NnG, just like those on the Seagreen project, will be manufactured by the rest of the world.

General UK

Trade unions have been highly critical of the failure to secure more renewable power engineering work for BiFab. Work on turbine jackets was seen as the best hope for Scotland's offshore fabrication sector. However, contracts have repeatedly gone to overseas yards, including Spain and Indonesia.

General UK

“With the challenges of Zoom meetings and lack of in-person workshops, the ability to communicate this were limited. However, out of our overwhelming respect for the local community, and in consideration of the invaluable perspectives shared with our team, we will suspend our efforts at this time.” ...The developers had filed an application for an amendment to the Zoning Code by the Town Board since no provisions currently exist for a wind port.

General New York

Energiekontor had appealed against Scottish Borders Council's rejection of its eight-turbine Wull Muir scheme. However, a reporter said it "failed to respect" the character of the area and turned down the appeal.

General UK

Wilson, who is an attorney, also argued that a solar array can only be allowed in a conservation-residential zoned neighborhood like theirs under a special use permit. She argues the plan violates the town’s open space requirement and conflicts with the town codes conservation principles. She also said there is no landscaping plan for Hubbs Road side of the array.

General New York

For the first time, Naveco's CEO Amit Virmani tells CBC News he is looking at moving the project out of Anse-Bleue, and out of northern New Brunswick altogether. ...That would require NB Power to agree to amend its existing contract with Naveco to buy 20 megawatts of electricity from the Anse-Bleue site. 

General New Brunswick

In a statement, the National Grid Electricity Systems Operator (ESO) said: "Unusually low wind output coinciding with a number of generator outages means the cushion of spare capacity we operate the system with has been reduced." It added that it was exploring measures to ensure that there was enough generation available to increase its capacity, and would update the market later on Wednesday evening.

General UK

Since the land is technically outside of the current reservation’s jurisdiction, this legal contention creates challenges for preserving their ancestors’ memories. “We’re kind of helpless because it’s off the reservation, but then this technically should be our land along with the other reservations based on the treaty rights,” he claimed. Within the earth that comprises of the Canawaugus territory, it bears great significance to the Seneca Nation.

General New York