Vermont’s surprising solar struggle

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21 May 2026

Good morning! We start the day in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, home to record snowfalls, mountain biking trails, and, now, a town torn over solar development. The state needs more clean, cheap power, but Lowell residents — including many who supported a nearby wind farm — tell Austyn Gaffney that the proposed solar array will destroy an invaluable community space. Similar debates are playing out across Vermont, which must balance decarbonization ambitions with concerns about preserving its rural character.

Lowell’s struggle unfolds as renewable power generators become more valuable than ever. Julian Spector dives into a new report that shows how batteries are solving solar and wind’s fatal flaw: their intermittency.

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TODAY'S TOP NEWS

CLEAN ENERGY

A new American Clean Power Association report expects the U.S. clean energy manufacturing industry will include more than 950 factories supporting 374,000 jobs by 2030, up from 825 plants and 215,000 jobs today. (report)
Think tank Ember finds wind and solar generated 22% of the world’s power in April, while gas was responsible for 20%, marking the first time the renewable sources have beat gas generation over an entire month. (news release)

STORAGE

The U.S. battery storage industry installed 9.7 GWh of new capacity in the first quarter of the year, up 32% from the same period in 2025 — an expansion that shows how grid batteries are becoming essential to meeting rising power demand. (E&E News)

GEOTHERMAL

Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah announce a partnership aimed at advancing geothermal energy production and plan a consortium of state officials to develop incentives for the technology. (Utah News Dispatch)

METALS

Boston Metals raises $75 million as it looks to decarbonize production of some critical metals, and will bring its Brazilian plant back online in September after an accident shut the facility down in January. (MIT Technology Review)

FOSSIL FUELS

Republican-led states say they’ve overcome early hurdles and are now successfully tapping a Biden-era fund to plug and remediate orphaned oil and gas wells. (E&E News)

CLIMATE

The United Nations adopts a nonbinding resolution that directs countries to address climate change, despite pushback from the U.S. and oil-producing nations. (E&E News)
A group of young Americans who sued the Trump administration over its repeal of the endangerment finding files for an immediate stay on the rollback’s implementation. (The Guardian)

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