Local permit denials are piling up across the country

KEY DEVELOPMENTS

• Wyoming County Blocks 199-MW Solar Farm: Natrona County commissioners for a 2,000-acre solar-plus-storage project with 100 MW of batteries near Casper, following a contentious public hearing. Read More: denied a permit.
• Minnesota Approves First Standalone Battery Project: The state PUC cleared Spearmint Energy's 150-MW/600-MWh Snowshoe project in Olmsted County, a $255 million system that marks entry into utility-scale standalone storage. Read More: Minnesota's.
• Virginia Rejects 600-MWh Battery Storage Permit: Rockingham County officials for a grid-scale BESS, adding to a growing list of local-level storage rejections across the eastern U.S. Read More: denied a special use permit.
• Democratic Governors Press Trump on Offshore Wind: A coalition of governors permitting for the Revolution Wind project serving Rhode Island and Connecticut, as federal delays continue to freeze offshore development. Read More: demanded the administration resume.
• ESA Wins 150-MW Michigan Battery Permit: Midland Township approved ESA's Salzburg Battery Storage Project, a 150-MW/600-MWh standalone BESS that in a state where another solar rezone was unanimously rejected just days ago. Read More: secured local backing.

Solar & Storage

The county-level permitting gauntlet tightened this week. In , Natrona County commissioners turned down a 199-MW solar farm paired with 100 MW of battery storage that would have occupied roughly 2,000 acres northwest of Casper. The vote followed a public hearing where opposition centered on land use and the project's footprint in a county better known for oil and gas production. For developers eyeing Wyoming's strong solar resource and transmission access to Western markets, the rejection is a concrete reminder that state-level friendliness to energy development does not automatically translate to local approval. Read More: Wyoming.

That pattern is playing out nationally. In , the $1.5 billion Mammoth solar project — billed as the largest utility-scale solar installation proposed on U.S. soil — continues to face over its conversion of farmland. "It's got nasty," one report noted, describing the escalating conflict between developers and rural residents. The project's sheer scale makes it a bellwether: if it stalls, the signal to investors will be that even well-capitalized mega-projects can be ground down by local politics. Read More: Indiana, fierce community opposition.

Not every board is saying no. Grant County commissioners in approved a conditional use permit for Silicon Ranch's Quincy Valley Solar facility, spanning approximately 1,770 acres. The deal includes for the county — a model that developers elsewhere are studying as a template for winning local consent. And Wisconsin's Public Service Commission cleared Invenergy's 300-MW solar farm paired with 165 MW of battery storage, while Georgia Power filed an integrated resource plan requesting approval to operate , a figure that would rank among the largest utility-owned storage portfolios in the Southeast. Read More: Washington, $2.85 million in mitigation funding, 1 GW of battery storage.

California, as usual, is operating on a different scale entirely. The California Energy Commission approved Intersect Power's Oberon project in Riverside County — a combined solar-storage facility featuring 679 MWp of solar generation and 250 MW/1,000 MWh of batteries, part of a broader. For context, 4.6 GWh is roughly the storage capacity that the entire U.S. had installed cumulatively through 2022. The state's opt-in permitting scheme has drawn a flood of applications, suggesting that streamlined state-level review can keep projects moving even when federal policy is uncertain. Read More: 4.6-GWh approval.

The storage picture is similarly split. Minnesota's PUC approved Spearmint Energy's Snowshoe project — a 150-MW/600-MWh standalone battery system in Olmsted County carrying a. It's the state's first standalone BESS, a milestone that opens a regulatory pathway for future projects. In Michigan, ESA's identically sized Salzburg project (150 MW/600 MWh) won township-level approval in Midland, a notable win given that Wexford County's joint planning commission unanimously rejected a 1,500-acre solar rezone in the same state last week. Read More: $255 million price tag.

But local resistance to storage is real and growing. In , the Pembroke Zoning Board on a 24-MWh battery facility after residents raised safety concerns. And in Virginia, Rockingham County flatly denied a special use permit for a 600-MWh BESS. These rejections matter because storage is supposed to be the technology that makes intermittent renewables work at scale — and every blocked project tightens the bottleneck between ambitious state procurement targets and the physical infrastructure needed to meet them. Read More: Massachusetts, delayed its decision.

Wind Energy

The Trump administration's freeze on wind energy permitting continues to cast a long shadow. Federal agencies are for onshore wind projects, extending a pattern that began shortly after the administration took office in January 2025. The slowdown affects projects on federal land and those requiring federal environmental review, effectively creating a two-tier system where wind farms on private land with no federal nexus can proceed while others stall indefinitely. Read More: delaying or denying crucial permits.

Offshore wind faces its own standoff. Democratic governors have demanded the administration resume work on the Revolution Wind project, which would serve Rhode Island and Connecticut. The federal permitting halt has frozen development timelines and left turbine supply contracts in limbo. In Wyoming, Natrona County's willingness to approve an Anticline Wind LLC wind farm north of Casper — even as it rejected the solar project in the same jurisdiction — offers a curious data point. The wind farm received a after extensive hearings, though commissioners expressed reluctance and the project still requires state-level sign-off. Wind's longer local track record in Wyoming appears to give it an edge over solar in community acceptance, at least for now. Read More: conditional use permit.

Policy & Markets

The emerging dynamic across clean energy development is one of profound jurisdictional fragmentation. State utility commissions in Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, and Georgia are actively clearing pathways for large-scale solar and storage deployment. County boards in Wyoming, Virginia, Indiana, and parts of Michigan and Massachusetts are blocking or delaying projects. And the federal government, under the Trump administration, is throttling wind permitting while leaving solar and storage largely to state and local authorities.

For developers, this three-way split means project siting has become the single most consequential business decision. A 150-MW battery project is welcome in Midland Township, Michigan, and dead on arrival in Rockingham County, Virginia — even though both are in states with growing electricity demand. The $2.85 million mitigation deal in Grant County, Washington, shows what successful local negotiation looks like, but not every developer has the margin or the patience to structure community benefit packages that satisfy skeptical boards. Georgia Power's 1-GW storage filing signals that vertically integrated utilities may have an easier path to deployment than independent developers, since utility projects often face less local permitting friction when bundled into rate cases.

LOOKING AHEAD

• Indiana Mammoth Solar Decision Looms: The $1.5 billion project's local approval process will test whether the largest proposed solar farm in the U.S. can survive organized rural opposition — a potential precedent for every large-scale solar siting battle that follows.
• Revolution Wind Standoff Escalates: With Democratic governors publicly pressuring the Trump administration to resume offshore wind permits, watch for potential legal action or Congressional intervention as the impasse drags into its second year.
• Georgia Power's 1-GW Storage Plan Faces PUC Review: The utility's integrated resource plan would create one of the largest utility-owned battery portfolios in the Southeast, and the commission's decision will signal how aggressively Southern regulators are willing to push storage.

THE BOTTOM LINE: State commissions are approving gigawatts of solar and storage while county boards block hundreds of megawatts project by project — and until developers solve the local permitting equation with real dollars and genuine community deals, that gap will keep widening.