After years of false starts and amid an acute regional energy crunch, large-scale onshore wind power could finally take off in Maine in 2026. Utility regulators in five New England states are considering developers’ proposals to build up to 1.2 gigawatts of onshore wind capacity in Maine’s far north, following a deadline for bids earlier this month.

The coordination between Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont — all of which have ambitious clean energy goals — means this procurement is more likely to succeed than those that have fizzled out in years past, said Francis Pullaro, president of clean-energy industry association RENEW Northeast.

“The states have come together, and that’s a pretty impressive accomplishment on their part,” he said. ​“We’re in a much better position now that we have the states going into the process having conferred.”

Maine’s Public Utilities Commission confirmed that at least one bid was submitted, but declined to share any further details at this time.

New England leaders have for nearly two decades discussed harnessing northern Maine’s robust winds to boost the region’s supply of renewable energy, but the idea has gained more urgency in recent years. Financial challenges and hostility from the Trump administration have dampened the prospects for the offshore wind developments that much of the region was counting on to meet their clean energy goals. At the same time, soaring utility bills and volatile oil and gas prices driven by conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have strengthened the case for turning to power generation with no fuel costs.

“It’s becoming more apparent that there is a need for solutions to confront the cost of energy,” said Eliza Donoghue, executive director of the Maine Renewable Energy Association. ​“Certainly, this is not a silver bullet, but it is a way we can have more renewables injected into the system.”

Maine’s attempts to lean in to wind power began in 2008, with the adoption of a law that set a target of having 3 GW of wind power — some of it offshore — by 2020. Reality fell short of that goal: As of October 2025, the state had about 1.2 GW of land-based wind capacity and no offshore wind, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.
Clean energy boosters have long considered Aroostook County on the Canadian border a promising location for onshore wind development. However, the county is part of a small, local electrical network that is not connected to the New England grid. Any wind projects in the area would require new transmission lines to carry the power produced to the rest of the region.

Attempts to develop projects in remote Aroostook County floundered in 2016 and again in 2023. In both cases, the complications and cost of building transmission infrastructure were major obstacles.

Wind supporters are hoping this time will be different as the multistate collaboration supports much-needed power lines and streamlines bid assessment. All five states have set aggressive emissions-reduction targets: Maine is aiming for 100% clean energy by 2040, for example, and Massachusetts and Rhode Island both want to be carbon-neutral by 2050.

In recent years, they’ve worked together to achieve these goals across the region.

Last March, at the recommendation of the New England States Committee on Electricity, an organization representing the area’s governors on energy matters, grid operator ISO New England issued a request for proposals for transmission infrastructure connecting central Maine to the rest of the grid, shortening the distance power lines would have to travel from wind turbines in Aroostook County. ISO New England received six proposals, which it narrowed down to two after preliminary analysis. The organization will continue its assessments and may announce a preferred proposal in September, after which it will be up to the states to decide whether to proceed.

Also, the Maine Legislature passed a measure in 2023 allowing Maine to partner with other New England states on wind procurements. This move means Maine is sharing bids received in response to the most recent request for proposals with the other participating states, which will then coordinate on selecting a recommended wind farm. A winning bid is slated to be announced by the end of May.

“The fact that we’ve got five of the states signed on and committed to this is pretty important,” Pullaro said.

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As power-hungry data centers and rising fuel prices put the squeeze on anxious voters last fall, Virginia Democrats secured a governing trifecta in Richmond partly on a promise to rein in energy costs.

Now, with a 60-day legislative session in the rearview mirror as of March 14, newly elected Gov. Abigail Spanberger and lawmakers in her party look primed to deliver on that pledge in spades.

Democrats, who grew their majority in the House of Delegates last November and have controlled the Senate since 2020, still remain divided on whether and how to continue the tax breaks that have helped make Virginia the data center capital of the world; a special session is scheduled next month to resolve the standoff.

But legislators already have plenty of bragging rights. A slew of bills that would maximize use of the state’s grid, pave the way for more batteries and solar arrays of all sizes, and take other steps to lower energy bills are poised to become law with Spanberger’s signature in the coming weeks.

“I think it was a good session for affordability,” said Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, a Democrat who represents a suburban Richmond district. ​“I think it was a good session for supply.”

In many ways, Virginia is the poster child for the energy upheaval underway across the country. It’s ground zero for the AI boom and the massive computer warehouses needed to support it, which threaten to spike demand at rates not seen in decades. PJM Interconnection, the regional grid manager, is plagued by backlogs and barely capable of bringing new generation sources online. The cost of fossil fuels, together with the ongoing addition and upkeep of poles and wires, is contributing to skyrocketing utility bills.

Amid these pressures, the state hasn’t wavered from a law mandating 100% carbon-free electricity by midcentury — even as the Trump administration has repeatedly threatened to derail Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, the largest offshore wind farm in the country, and as congressional Republicans have slashed incentives and other inducements for solar and energy efficiency.

All that context was top of mind as lawmakers began their session this year, said Del. Phil Hernandez, a Democrat from Norfolk. ​“The assignment was crystal clear,” he said. ​“It really doesn’t matter where you are in Virginia: Electricity prices are salient. People are concerned, rightly, about the upward trajectory.”

From immense solar farms to balcony solar

Democrats’ strategy for tackling those worries was twofold, said VanValkenburg: to boost solar and storage, and to better utilize existing transmission and distribution infrastructure. ​“These are the two things we can do that are the cheapest, the fastest to get online, and the fastest way to save ratepayers money,” he said.

VanValkenburg has been on a long quest to speed the deployment of large-scale solar, promoting bills in 2024 and 2025 to ease local solar restrictions; they failed to become law. But the third time might be the charm. His latest attempt, Senate Bill 347, prohibits outright bans on large-scale solar while still leaving ultimate siting decisions up to local governments. It cleared both chambers last month and awaits Spanberger’s signature — though it’s among the few energy measures she hasn’t taken an explicit position on.

“I hope she signs it,” VanValkenburg said. ​“At the end of the day, this bill doesn’t mandate a single piece of solar. It just creates a better conversation, which I think will get us more solar.”

While that measure would pave the way for adding immense solar farms capable of powering thousands of homes, lawmakers also legalized a much smaller variant: balcony solar. Come January, Virginians should be able to buy and plug in the devices on their balcony or yard in the span of a few hours — avoiding permitting and utility red tape and shaving as much as 15% off their energy bills.

Lawmakers also sought to boost rooftop solar arrays this session, chiefly by increasing targets for these types of installations. The 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act called on Dominion to get at least 1% of its electricity from renewable energy projects less than 1 megawatt in capacity. A bill sponsored by VanValkenburg, which now sits on the governor’s desk, would increase that number to 5%.

“Off to the races” on storage and grid use

The Virginia Clean Economy Act could also get a refresh when it comes to batteries. The law was first written to require utilities Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power Co. to deploy a little over 3 gigawatts of short-duration batteries, a mature technology that is widely available. A measure sponsored by Democrat Del. Rip Sullivan of Fairfax would raise the target to nearly 17 gigawatts by 2045, with most coming in data center–heavy Dominion territory. By that same year, the bill requires the utilities to deploy a total of 4.5 gigawatts of long-duration storage; such batteries can discharge energy for 10 hours or more but are still nascent in the commercial sector.

“Storage is really a critical affordability component, especially over the long term,” said Nate Benforado, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. ​“If we can build storage, that is going to obviate the need for a lot of this gas, which is expensive and risky for customers.” Noting the war in the Middle East as the latest global conflict to impact fossil fuel prices, Benforado added, ​“If we continue to invest in gas infrastructure, expect your bills to go up and up.”

Lawmakers also passed bills to better utilize the state’s existing network of poles, wires, and other electricity delivery infrastructure. Because the grid is built to accommodate the maximum amount of electrons that might ever flow through it — such as on a particularly cold winter morning when people crank up heating systems — about half of it goes unused 99% of the time.

One measure would require Dominion and Appalachian Power to quantify grid utilization across their systems, a first step toward the deployment of batteries, line sensors, and other grid-enhancing technologies to increase energy generation on the system.

Another bill, dubbed the Fast Access to Surplus Transmission, or FAST, Act, would spur the same companies to identify sites where batteries or other technologies could be added to existing solar projects, taking advantage of extra room on the grid at the point of interconnection. Under a first-of-its-kind trial program, the utilities could add a total of 600 megawatts of generation using the surplus capacity.

“We’ve started to see a drastic reduction in costs around energy storage,” said Jim Purekal, a director at Advanced Energy United who heads the group’s legislative work in Virginia. ​“The more we install these, especially if we use existing grid capacity, the more we’re saving everybody money. And if we’re able to install these projects in tandem with solar and wind, which are your cheapest forms of energy generation, now we’re off to the races.”

“1,000 great ideas”

Hernandez was a sponsor of the FAST Act, and he is especially proud of its novelty. ​“Sometimes Virginia is not great at being first to move on a concept,” he said, ​“but in this case, it worked out.”

He also championed legislation requiring Dominion and Appalachian Power to invest millions in energy-efficiency upgrades for low-income, elderly, and disabled households. Another of his bills would streamline the permitting process for home rooftop solar.

“There were a whole lot more from other members,” Hernandez said. ​“This moment that we’re in is all about having 1,000 great ideas, because there’s no one thing you can do to fix every problem.”

To wit, over 50 energy and climate bills tracked and supported by the Virginia Conservation Network passed during the two-month session — including those setting the state up to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, adopt more community solar farms, study ratemaking reforms, and many others.

Spanberger has yet to sign any of the measures, and many passed with little help from Republicans. But the vast majority of these bills are almost certain to become law, and VanValkenburg is hopeful that they’ll endure with bipartisan support. That’s because the economics of clean energy — especially solar and storage — just keep improving.

“I think these laws are going to be durable from a free-market capitalism perspective,” VanValkenburg said. ​“But I also just think that those are also the only ways that you’re gonna keep energy bills down.”

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The world is in a state of climate emergency, the head of the United Nations declared Sunday, following the release of the latest State of the Global Climate report from the World Meteorological Organization.  

“Earth is being pushed beyond its limits while every key climate indicator is flashing red,” said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. “Earth’s energy imbalance, the gap between heat absorbed and heat released, is the highest on record. Our planet is trapping heat faster than it can shed it.”

The consequences, he added, “are written into the daily lives of families struggling as droughts and storms drive up food prices, in workers pushed to the brink by extreme heat, in farmers watching crops wither, and in communities and homes swept away by floods.”

The report highlights the significance of record-high concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and notes that the effects are visible everywhere, from the 11-year series of hottest-ever years to the way heat is accumulating deep in the oceans. For the first time, it includes a metric called Earth’s energy imbalance as a key climate indicator, measuring the rate at which energy from the sun enters and leaves the planet.

In a stable climate, incoming energy and outgoing energy are about the same. But activities such as burning fossil fuels, growing food and making steel, cement and plastic have upset that balance by pushing levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere to the highest level in at least 800,000 years. That’s trapping more of the sun’s energy in the Earth’s climate system than ever previously recorded.

“Improved scientific understanding of Earth’s energy imbalance shows the disruption is real and the reality facing our planet and climate right now,” said World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Celeste Saulo, adding that, “We will live with these consequences for hundreds and thousands of years.”

The new metric shows a more complete picture of how the climate system is responding to human emissions by integrating all the heat accumulating in the oceans and atmosphere, on land and melting ice, said oceanographer Karina von Schuckmann, a senior science adviser with Mercator Ocean International and member of the WMO’s ocean observations panel.

U.S. climate scientist Ko Barrett, deputy secretary-general of the WMO, said Earth’s energy imbalance also helps show how different parts of the climate system are connected and identifies the central role of the oceans in absorbing most of the trapped heat.

The energy balance indicator highlighted by the WMO focuses on the fundamentals of climate change, said independent climate analyst Leon Simons, who co-authored several recent papers on the topic.

“Energy coming in, energy going out,” he said. “Greenhouse gases change how much energy escapes, and the system responds. That’s really what’s driving everything.”

That basic energy measurement is a better starting point than trying to establish temperature change relative to 1850 in international forums, which then quickly start quibbling over what a tenth of a degree means, Simons said. The measurement is also more significant now because there are 20 to 25 years of data from satellite sensors designed to study Earth’s energy balance.

Science basics also help explain one of the report’s most memorable conclusions. The air temperature people experience is only about 1 to 2 percent of all the energy trapped in the Earth’s systems by greenhouse gases. About 90 to 93 percent heats the oceans while about 5 to 6 percent melts ice and heats land.

The WMO report is compiled with input from national weather agencies, international research programs and U.N. partners, drawing on data from satellites, ocean monitoring systems and weather stations worldwide. It reflects contributions from scientists and institutions across nearly 190 countries.

The information reflects the best available global science, despite concerns during the past year about cuts to U.S. climate programs, said Barrett, the WMO deputy and formerly a veteran leader of U.S. federal climate programs across several presidential administrations.

Critical data flows and climate observations have not been disrupted by any of the major contributors to the report, and she noted that Congress has restored “a lot of the funding” previously reported as having been cut. There also has been no decline in demand for accurate climate information, she added.

Guterres said that climate stress is exposing the fact that “our addiction to fossil fuels is destabilizing both the climate and global security.” Accelerating a global transition to renewable energy would “ deliver climate security, energy security and national security,” he said.

“Today’s report should come with a warning label,” he said. “Climate chaos is accelerating and delay is deadly. The way ahead must be grounded in science, common sense and the courage to act.”

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