Plugging In

Energy and the Environment

What’s behind one lawsuit against Vineyard Wind

Climate change isn’t the only concern, says Hawkins

By Bruce Mohl Offshore Wind 0 Comments Sep 20, 2021

ANNIE HAWKINS has a message you don’t hear very often in Massachusetts these days. The executive director of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a national group of fishing interests, Hawkins is questioning the rush to develop offshore wind. Her organization is suing the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, alleging the agency is failing to protect(...)

Vineyard Wind completes $2.3b bank financing

Work to start Thursday in Barnstable

By Bruce Mohl Energy, Offshore Wind 0 Comments Sep 15, 2021

VINEYARD WIND said it will begin construction of the nation’s first commercial-scale wind farm as soon as Thursday now that nine banks have agreed to put up $2.3 billion in financing for the project. Lars Pedersen, the CEO of Vineyard Wind, said he was pleased that the project is finally moving into the construction phase,(...)

A 2d lawsuit in works against Vineyard Wind

Fishing alliance criticizes lack of mitigation measures

By Bruce Mohl Energy, Offshore Wind 0 Comments Sep 13, 2021

A GROUP REPRESENTING US fishing interests is suing to block the federal government’s approval of Vineyard Wind, becoming the second organization to file a legal challenge to the nation’s first commercial offshore wind project. The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a coalition of fishing industry associations and companies, signaled on Monday its intent to sue the(...)

Key breakthrough in fusion energy production

MIT official calls technology a climate game changer

By Bruce Mohl 0 Comments Sep 8, 2021

A CAMBRIDGE STARTUP working with officials at MIT said on Wednesday that it has achieved a major breakthrough in fusion technology that could begin revolutionizing the way energy is produced around the planet as early as 2030. Fusion produces energy the same way the sun does, by combining atoms under enormous heat. The allure of(...)

Ida renews calls for decentralizing grid

New Orleans could be in the dark for days or weeks

By Bruce Mohl Electricity, Energy 0 Comments Aug 31, 2021

HURRICANE IDA delivered a knockout punch to the power grid in New Orleans on Sunday, plunging the city into darkness and renewing a long-running national debate about the best way to deliver electricity at a time in history when severe storms and weather are becoming more commonplace. Storms like Ida illustrate the vulnerability of a(...)

Is it Cape Wind all over again?

Nantucket residents file suit to block Vineyard Wind

By Bruce Mohl Electricity, Energy, Offshore Wind 0 Comments Aug 25, 2021

TWO NANTUCKET RESIDENTS, backed by a network of think tanks and beachfront property owners along the East Coast, set in motion what appears to be a Cape Wind strategy for derailing the nation’s first industrial-size offshore wind farm and others that are lining up behind it. Vallorie Oliver, a home designer on Nantucket, filed a(...)

Clean Energy Center offers help on Brayton Point

$18,000 grant to explore offshore wind possibilities

By Bruce Mohl Municipal Government, Offshore Wind 0 Comments Aug 20, 2021

THE MASSACHUSETTS Clean Energy Center is putting up some grant money to help the town of Somerset build consensus around the development of offshore wind at Brayton Point, but the funding is not exactly the assistance the municipality was seeking from the Baker administration. Somerset is struggling to figure out what to do with Brayton(...)

Taking a new approach to solar grid connections

We have to speed things up and reduce the cost

By Kaitlin Kelly O'Neill Energy 0 Comments Aug 9, 2021

IT’S CLEAR that our current electric grid interconnection model is unsustainable if Massachusetts is to build the amount of renewable energy that will be required for the coming years and decades. The Commonwealth’s efforts to formalize new standards for interconnection are a laudable first step, but there is much at stake. There are currently over(...)

Lessons from early days of EV charging

Fleets are the future, demand management is key

By James Cater Electricity, Transportation 0 Comments Aug 3, 2021

ELECTRIC VEHICLES are crucial to reducing carbon emissions and fighting climate change. That’s why governors from coast to coast have announced that they will ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, and why automakers from GM to Ford to Nissan have announced countless new EVs coming to the market in the next five(...)

Proposed biomass limits restrict new plants in 90 percent of state

Remaining 35 communities worried about pollution

By Shira Schoenberg biomass, environmental justice 0 Comments Jul 30, 2021

MONTHS AFTER THE Baker administration pulled the plug on plans for a controversial new biomass plant in Springfield, state environmental officials proposed new regulations that would drastically limit where biomass plants can be located. The rules promulgated by the Department of Energy Resources in April say new biomass plants located in or within five miles(...)