The 1.5-GW Atlantic Shores 1 wind energy project in progress offshore New Jersey had its Clean Air Act permit from the Environmental Protection Agency remanded by the agency’s Environmental Appeals Board in a Friday filing. The board said EPA’s Region 2 office, which covers New Jersey, requested the voluntary remand “so that the Region has the opportunity to reevaluate the Project and its environmental impacts” in light of President Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order, which mandated a pause on offshore wind leasing and a review of existing leases. The group Save Long Beach Island originally requested an appeal and review of the project’s Clean Air Act permit last October. The group’s website states its goal is to ensure that Atlantic Shores’ proposed wind turbines “are moved further offshore and out of sight to the Hudson South Call Area which is approximately 30 to 57 miles from our coastline.” The Friday filing said that Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind filed a March 7 response objecting to the remand and arguing that Region 2 didn’t provide “good cause” for it, but the board said it “has broad discretion to grant a voluntary remand.” “The circumstances here support a voluntary remand. In this case, the Region has clearly stated its intent to reconsider the Project and permit decision in light of the Presidential Memorandum,” the board said. Region 2’s review of the permit will involve “[conferring] with other executive branch agencies regarding further evaluation of various impacts that may result from the Project, including impacts on birds, wildlife, fishing, and other relevant environmental concerns described in the Presidential Memorandum,” along with other steps left unspecified, according to the board. In a Monday statement, Atlantic Shores said it is “disappointed by the EPA’s decision to pull back its fully executed permit as regulatory certainty is critical to

Dive Brief: Schneider Electric and power system design and operations firm ETAP on Tuesday released digital twins that can design and simulate the power needs of AI factories, the companies said in a release shared with Facilities Dive. A digital twin is a system replica that enables users to simulate operations to improve performance in real time.  By leveraging ETAP’s integration of NVIDIA Omniverse technologies, the companies said, they were able to develop digital twins that bring together multiple inputs for mechanical, thermal, networking and electrical systems to mirror how an AI factory operates.  NVIDIA introduced its Omniverse Blueprint for AI factory design and operations Tuesday at its annual conference, GTC. The companies say the collaboration will provide enhanced insight and control over the electrical systems and power requirements at AI factories. That presents “an opportunity for significant efficiency, reliability and sustainability gains,” Schneider Electric said.  Dive Insight: AI workloads such as large-scale training clusters and edge inference servers are driving a significant increase in data center power consumption, requiring substantial computational power that has led to higher rack power densities, the companies say. This has led data center capacity proposals to balloon, with the average proposed center doubling in size from about 150 MW in early 2023 to 300 MW in mid-2024, according to an Oct. 24 report from Wood Mackenzie.  The demand is giving AI-related occupiers increasing influence over data center development decisions like site selection, design and operational requirements, CBRE said in its North America Data Center Trends H2 2024 report, released Feb. 26. These occupiers are “prioritizing markets with scalable power capacity and advanced connectivity solutions,” the commercial real estate services firm said.  Power availability remains the top priority for data center developers looking at greenfield sites, according to CBRE’s report. “Startups, enterprises, colocation providers, and

In a rebound from early COVID-era declines, utilities invested a record $8.8 billion in energy efficiency in 2023, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy said Tuesday in its assessment of state policies. “Energy efficiency remains our nation’s least-cost energy resource while also delivering additional benefits such as grid reliability and resilience,” ACEEE said. “Utility electricity efficiency investments slowed from 2020 through 2022, but in 2023 reached a new high.” The total includes $6.9 billion for electric efficiency and $1.9 billion in gas efficiency investments. The total is an increase of approximately 16% compared with the recent low of 2020, ACEEE said, and 6% more than the previous high in 2019.  Many states and utilities are now looking beyond more traditional efficiency efforts, like lighting retrofits, to focus on deep energy home upgrades, smart buildings, expansion of electric vehicle infrastructure, zero-energy buildings, and electrification of space and water heating, according to the report. But the investment is uneven. ACEEE’s “2025 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard” found that just five states accounted for 90% of the increase in 2023 efficiency spending: Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. “In the wake of rapidly rising energy prices and electricity bills, several states are recognizing energy efficiency’s important role in keeping energy affordable by helping homeowners and businesses reduce costs, by improving living conditions, and by creating jobs, all while supporting increasingly ambitious state and local goals to reduce carbon emissions,” ACEEE said. The scorecard ranks states on their policy and program efforts to advance energy efficiency. California ranked No. 1 for the seventh time. Massachusetts was second, followed by New York, with Maryland and Vermont tied for fourth. “Leading states are reducing costs and cutting pollution through energy savings measures, but many other states are stagnating,” Mark Kresowik, senior policy director at ACEEE and lead author of

The chief executives of more than a dozen oil companies will deliver a message of gratitude — as well as caution — when they meet with President Donald Trump on Wednesday.  Industry leaders say they have plenty of reasons to give thanks. Trump is an unabashed champion of US oil and gas production who has vowed to unleash the industry’s potential. Two months into office, he’s already taken steps to begin unwinding policies that increased operational costs and reduced demand for fuel. But for the roughly 15 oil bosses set to visit Trump at the White House, there also are warning signs on that path to energy dominance. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has floated a $50-per-barrel target for crude that’s too low to sustain some US production. The president has spent days enthusiastically praising oil price declines that came after he pushed OPEC+ to boost output and the cartel obliged.  Meanwhile, the president’s threatened tariffs are stoking industry concerns about potential economic declines even as the levies raise costs for the materials oil companies use to refine gasoline and drill wells.  “I suspect operators are enthusiastic about new market opportunities” posed by Trump, said Kevin Book, managing director of the Washington consulting firm ClearView Energy Partners LLC. But they’re also likely “concerned about demand headwinds from a trade war. And, generally speaking, in the oil patch, higher prices go over better than lower ones.” The meeting is set to be the first of its kind since Trump’s second inauguration and his creation of a new National Energy Dominance Council to shape policy.  Potential participants are set to span the industry’s full spectrum, including integrated oil companies (Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Shell Plc, BP PLC, ConocoPhillips, Hess Corp.); independent producers (Diamondback Energy Inc., APA Corp’s Apache, Occidental Petroleum Corp., Continental Resources Inc.); refiners (Marathon

A series of clean energy projects at the Grangemouth refinery could create around 800 jobs over the next 15 years, according to the Project Willow summary. The £1.5 million feasibility study, published today, also stated that this figure could potentially rise to 1,200. The document outlines nine potential projects that could be developed at the site, helping secure a long-term industrial future for the refinery These projects are divided into three tracks. In the waste category, the proposed projects are hydrothermal upgrading (breaking down hard-to-recycle plastics), chemical plastics recycling and ABE biorefining (breaking down waste material). In the bio-feedstock track, Grangemouth could gain the capacity to break down Scottish timber into bioethanol, add anaerobic digestion of bioresources and digestate pyrolysis, or convert Scottish cover crops into sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel using low-carbon hydrogen. The third category is offshore wind conduit to replace natural gas with hydrogen, using low-carbon hydrogen to produce methanol and convert it to sustainable aviation fuel, and producing low-carbon ammonia from hydrogen for shipping and chemicals. The Project Willow report envisions that the Grangemouth overhaul could generate £600-700m of total annual gross value add for the Scottish economy by 2040 under its base case, potentially rising to £1-2bn. The developments could also reduce Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions by 3.5-6 mtpa. However, this will require around £3.5bn of capital investment from the private sector to achieve – and, according to the report, the maximum capex outlays for all projects and growth scenarios would be over £8bn. Under Project Willow’s timelines, the first projects – hydrothermal plastic recycling, dissolution plastics recycling and anaerobic digestion – could come online by 2028. Later projects, such as e-ammonia, e-methanol and methanol to jet fuel, could come online by 2035, with the final phase of bioethanol generation entering operations by 2039.

The transition to net zero is “the economic opportunity of the 21st century”, energy secretary Ed Miliband said on Wednesday. He described the opportunity as the “most important context” for the discussions being had by government in the energy sector. “There’s been a long-standing issue in our country about creating the good jobs at good wages that people want to see,” Miliband said. “We haven’t done enough for them. If you want our growth in our economy, what are good jobs in our economy? This is absolutely at the core, but we haven’t done enough as a country.” The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) published a report last month showing that the net zero economy grew three times faster than the economy as a whole last year. That report showed the economic opportunity also led to a 10.2% additional increase in employment and higher average wages. Miliband said that Britain has been “losing out” in the race to equip the country with renewable energy jobs, adding that is “what the government is determined to do”. “Denmark has almost all kinds of many renewable jobs per capita,” he said. “Why haven’t we captured these jobs?” A lack of “industrial policy” is the reason Miliband cited for falling behind in the race to create renewable energy jobs. “Industrial policy is at the heart of what we’re trying to do with GB Energy and capitalising, public investment, as part of that,” said Miliband. Despite Jonathan Reynolds’ eight months as trade secretary, the government has “lost” its “muscle memory”, according to Miliband; something he said it is now “regaining” under his leadership. He said the role of the state is to provide a “framework” for industry and break down the barriers to private investment. He made a call to make “public investment and crowd