The Trump administration will pay nearly $1 billion of taxpayer money to kill two offshore wind… | Clean Energy Briefing — March 25, 2026

TODAY'S LEAD: The Trump administration will pay nearly $1 billion of taxpayer money to kill two offshore wind farms that would have powered over a million homes — even as the nation's largest offshore wind project just proved the technology works by delivering its first electrons to the Virginia grid. The collision of these two realities defines the schizophrenic state of American clean energy in March 2026.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS

Trump Pays $928M to Cancel Two Wind Farms: The administration struck a deal with TotalEnergies to abandon offshore wind projects off New York and North Carolina, using public funds to block clean energy that would have served more than one million homes. Read More: New Jersey Monitor.
Ohio Blocks 94MW Solar Over Fake Comments: The Ohio Power Siting Board rejected the Crossroads Solar Grazing Center in Morrow County despite evidence that many opposing public comments were fabricated, raising alarm about anti-renewable disinformation campaigns. Read More: Canary Media.
Google Signs 400MW Texas Solar PPAs: Sunraycer Renewables secured long-term power purchase agreements with Google for the Lupinus solar portfolio in Hagansport, Texas, with construction already underway. Read More: Solar Power World.
Arevon Breaks Ground on 1GWh California Battery: Construction began on the $600 million Cormorant Energy Storage Project in Daly City — a 250-MW, 1,000-MWh facility capable of powering 321,000 homes for four hours, targeted for 2027 operation. Read More: Solar Power World.
Zelestra Secures $600M for Texas Solar: The developer locked in $600 million in financing for a major utility-scale solar project in Texas, signaling continued investor confidence in the state's solar pipeline despite federal policy headwinds. Read More: reNews.

Solar & Storage

Texas continues to cement its position as the gravitational center of American utility-scale solar development. In one of the day's biggest deals, Sunraycer Renewables finalized long-term power purchase agreements with Google for the , a combined 400-MWac portfolio in Hagansport, where construction has already begun. The deal underscores the relentless demand from hyperscale data center operators, who are racing to secure clean power for their expanding AI and cloud computing infrastructure. Google, which has pledged to run on 24/7 carbon-free energy, now has one of the largest corporate solar pipelines in the country. Read More: Lupinus and Lupinus 2 solar projects.

Separately, Zelestra for another major Texas solar installation, a deal that signals Wall Street's continued appetite for solar assets in ERCOT territory even as the Trump administration's posture toward renewable energy tax credits remains uncertain. Combined with the Google-Sunraycer agreement, today's Texas news alone represents well over a gigawatt of committed solar capacity and more than $1 billion in capital deployment in a single state. Read More: secured $600 million in financing.

In Illinois, EDP Renewables North America , a 150-MW installation in Fulton County that will supply Microsoft with clean energy — enough to power roughly 39,500 homes. The project is another data point in the growing pattern of Big Tech bankrolling utility-scale solar through long-term offtake agreements that effectively de-risk project financing. Microsoft and Google are now the single largest corporate drivers of new solar capacity in the United States. Read More: completed the Pleasantville Solar project.

But if the tech-backed solar boom represents one side of the ledger, Ohio offered a sobering counterpoint. The Ohio Power Siting Board in Morrow County, a dual-use project from Open Road Renewables that would have paired livestock grazing with solar generation across 726 acres. The developer and independent observers pointed to as a key factor, with multiple reports suggesting that many of the public comments filed in opposition were fabricated. As , Ohio's regulatory framework gives local governments effective veto power over renewable energy siting — a deference the state conspicuously does not extend to fossil fuel infrastructure. The case has become a flashpoint for clean energy advocates, who warn that organized disinformation campaigns are becoming a systemic barrier to project permitting in rural America. Read More: rejected the 94-MW Crossroads Solar Grazing Center, coordinated anti-solar activism, Canary Media reported.

On the storage front, Arevon Energy in Daly City, California — a 250-MW, 1,000-MWh battery facility that ranks among the largest storage projects under construction in the state. The $600 million project, backed by a long-term agreement with community choice aggregator MCE, is expected to come online in 2027 and will be capable of powering 321,000 homes for up to four hours during peak demand. Additional from Banpu Power and Energy Vault add roughly 550 MWh more to the national pipeline, bringing the day's total storage announcements to approximately 1,550 MWh — a figure that would have been extraordinary just two years ago. Read More: broke ground on the Cormorant Energy Storage Project, battery storage deals in Texas.

Wind Energy

The contradiction at the heart of American offshore wind sharpened dramatically today. The Trump administration confirmed it will pay to cancel two offshore wind farms — one planned off the coast of New York, the other off North Carolina. The projects would have collectively generated enough electricity for more than one million American households. The deal, widely reported by state news outlets including the , means American taxpayers are effectively writing a check approaching $1 billion not to build clean energy infrastructure — a development that stunned industry observers and drew immediate criticism from offshore wind advocates and coastal state officials. Read More: $928 million to TotalEnergies, New Jersey Monitor.

The payout stands in particularly stark contrast to news from Virginia, where Dominion Energy's Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project — the largest offshore wind installation in the United States — and delivered electrons to the grid. The project is roughly 70 percent complete, with 176 monopiles and 157 transition pieces installed and underwater cables transmitting 14.7 megawatts from its first operational turbine to Virginia Beach. The milestone proves that large-scale offshore wind works in American waters, even as the federal government spends public money to ensure less of it gets built. The project's continued progress is partly insulated from federal interference because its permits and financing were secured before the current administration took office, but its long-term regulatory environment remains uncertain. Read More: generated its first power.

Policy & Markets

Today's headlines collectively sketch a clean energy landscape defined by two competing forces: massive private capital continuing to pour into solar, storage, and wind projects on the strength of corporate demand and state-level frameworks, and an increasingly aggressive federal posture that is willing to spend nearly $1 billion to block clean energy deployment. The TotalEnergies wind cancellation is the most expensive single federal action against a renewable energy project in American history, and it raises immediate questions about whether similar buyouts could target other permitted offshore wind leases.

Meanwhile, the Ohio solar rejection highlights a growing vulnerability in the ground-level permitting process. Industry groups have flagged an increase in coordinated campaigns to generate fabricated public opposition to utility-scale solar projects, particularly in Midwestern states where local opt-out provisions give county boards outsize power. With Senate Bill 52 in Ohio continuing to give townships veto authority over renewable projects, developers are facing a two-front war: federal hostility from above and manufactured local opposition from below.

For developers navigating this environment, the playbook increasingly centers on states with strong renewable portfolio standards, corporate offtakers willing to sign long-term PPAs, and markets like ERCOT where energy demand growth — driven by data centers, manufacturing, and electrification — creates organic price signals. Industry analysts are also watching how projects are to lock in federal tax credits before potential legislative changes under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act narrow their availability. Read More: structuring domestic content compliance.

LOOKING AHEAD

TotalEnergies Cancellation Fallout: Watch for legal challenges from New York and North Carolina officials, as well as congressional scrutiny over the use of federal funds to cancel permitted energy projects — and whether other offshore wind leaseholders may seek similar buyouts.
Ohio Siting Reform Pressure: The fake-comments scandal at the Morrow County solar project may intensify calls to reform Ohio's renewable siting process, particularly the township opt-out authority under Senate Bill 52 that critics say creates an uneven playing field favoring fossil fuels.
Dominion CVOW Completion Timeline: With first power achieved and the project 70 percent installed, the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project enters a critical construction phase through late 2026 — its continued progress will serve as a real-time counterargument to claims that offshore wind is unworkable in U.S. waters.

TODAY'S QUICK ANSWERS

Q: What does the $928 million TotalEnergies buyout signal for other offshore wind developers with federal leases?

A: It creates a dangerous precedent and a perverse incentive. Developers holding offshore wind leases that face permitting delays or political headwinds may now calculate that a federal buyout is more profitable than fighting for project completion. Watch for other leaseholders — particularly those with projects in early development stages — to explore similar exit negotiations, potentially shrinking the U.S. offshore wind pipeline further without a single turbine being removed.

Q: Why should solar developers be alarmed by the Ohio Crossroads rejection, even outside Ohio?

A: Because it demonstrates that fabricated public comments can successfully kill a permitted project — and there's no accountability mechanism to prevent it from happening again. At least 15 states now have local opt-out or veto provisions for renewable energy siting. If organized disinformation campaigns can manufacture the appearance of community opposition at scale, every utility-scale solar project in those states faces a new category of development risk that no amount of engineering or financing can mitigate.

Q: With over $1.2 billion committed to Texas solar in a single day, is the state's grid ready?

A: ERCOT is adding solar faster than any other grid in the country, but curtailment is already a growing issue during peak midday generation. The simultaneous boom in battery storage — exemplified by today's Texas storage acquisitions — is critical. Developers building solar in ERCOT without a storage or firm offtake strategy are increasingly exposed to negative pricing risk during afternoon hours, making PPAs with creditworthy buyers like Google not just attractive but essential to project bankability.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The federal government is now spending nearly $1 billion to prevent clean energy from being built, even as private capital deployed more than that in a single day on solar and storage projects — a divergence that cannot hold indefinitely and will force a reckoning over who actually controls America's energy future.