One of the biggest solar farm projects planned for Munster - on a 175 hectre site in East Cork has been denied planning permission by Cork County Council. The Ballysallagh Solar Farm had encountered opposition from locals in the Leamlara area (near Lisgold) - between Watergrasshill and Midleton. The plan was large and ambitious, with the developers seeking a 40 year permission for developments including 25 single-story transformer stations, underground cabling, landscaping and security fencing around its perimeter. There was organised opposition in the area with locals voicing concerns on the impact on a relatively unspoilt rural area and on the flooding which has plagued this part of East Cork - most recently with the severe damage caused by Storm Babet in October of 2023.

East Point Energy has been dealt a blow in its pursuit to construct a 150MW/600MWh BESS in Maryland, after local planning officials rejected a rezoning request sought by the developer. With Worcester County’s zoning ordinance not accounting for BESS, the developer submitted its rezoning request on the grounds that the project “aligns with the County’s provisions for public utility infrastructure and essential services,” which are permitted by special exception. This isn’t the first stumbling block encountered by East Point this year, after the developer withdrew plans for a 116MW BESS destined for upstate New York in response to a local moratorium preventing development of the technology. Plans for the Cedar Hall Energy Center project were presented to the Worcester County Zoning Board of Appeals on 14 August by East Point Energy. But county officials denied the rezoning request.

Grundy County Board members last month acted on another solar project. Grundy County Development Director Alec MacDonald said the project is located on East North Road which is one and half miles outside the city limits of Morris as well as the Villages of Channahon and Minooka near the Brisbin Road exit. Macdonald said the Village of Minooka opposes the project...Nancy Norton with the Grundy Economic Development Council, State Senator Sue Rezin and others urged the county board to vote against the project. Meanwhile, an attorney representing Lightstar Renewables said the board shall approve the project and also talked about the threat of litigation...After nearly an hour of discussion, the board unanimously denied the special use petition.

The planned 200m wind turbine in Loppem, Zedelgem, set to power 7,000 homes, was cancelled after 882 resident objections, municipal opposition, and heritage concerns. Alderman Stijn Timmerman agreed with the decision. As VRT News reported, a plan to build a giant wind turbine in Loppem, near Zedelgem, in the province of West Flanders, Belgium, will not move forward after opposition from residents. The turbine would have been over 200 meters tall and capable of producing electricity for nearly 7,000 households. Local people submitted 882 objections in the public consultation. The plan was to site the turbine between the Molendreef and the E403. The turbine could potentially be used to supply renewable energy to the grid, but the size of the turbine and its location were of huge concern to many residents due to its visual impact on the area.

Residents have welcomed news a 1,200 megawatt wind farm that was proposed to deliver enough energy to power nearly 500,000 homes will be dumped by the Queensland government because of community concerns. The Forest Wind project was slated to build up to 226 wind turbines, as tall as 265 metres, across Queensland state forests in Gympie, Maryborough and the Fraser Coast. The former Labor government passed the Forest Wind Farm Development legislation that allowed the turbines to be built in state forests. On Monday, Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie said the government would repeal that legislation. He said the act was "creating fear and anxiety in local communities". "The Crisafulli government is ending years of uncertainty for the local community by repealing the special purpose legislation introduced by Labor designed to steamroll the local community in their reckless rush for renewables," he said.

The proposed Rainbow Trout solar fields hit a dead end early Thursday when the project failed to get the required exception from the Area Board of Zoning Appeals of Tippecanoe County. Opponents of the project turned out en masse wearing red shirts and bandanas and filled half of the Tippecanoe Room in the County Building. They overflowed into the hallway. The group shouted and applauded shortly after 1:30 a.m. Thursday when the board's 4-3 vote was announced. The vote ended a marathon seven-plus-hour meeting and appears to signal the end of a six-month grassroots effort to block turning 1,700 acres of prime farmland in northwestern Tippecanoe County into a vast field of solar panels.

The Ogle County Board voted unanimously Tuesday to deny special-use permits for two solar energy developments. The first proposed development was for a 5-megawatt community solar energy facility on 89.56 acres in the 7000 block of North Stillman Road in Scott and Marion townships. Those township boards also voted against the proposal, along with the Ogle County Zoning Board of Appeals and Planning and Zoning Committee. Residents of the area near the proposed solar facility attended the meeting and held up signs thanking the County Board after the denials. One resident spoke during public commentary....At its June meeting, the board denied a special-use permit for a solar facility in Mt. Morris Township by a vote of 17-4, with residents citing the property’s value as farmland.

The board of supervisors in Dinwiddie County on Tuesday unanimously rejected a proposal to build a 196-acre solar panel project. The board voted against a rezoning proposal made by an entity called Flowers Solar LLC, which wanted to build a relatively small, 20-megawatt solar farm. Mark Moore, a member of the board, said solar panels harvest too little energy to be worth the cost. Solar fields take up large swaths of rural land but can’t harvest energy at night.

The Essex County Board of Supervisors last week voted to deny conditional use permit requests for three potential solar sites in the Ozeana area. New Energy Equity, of Annapolis, Maryland, had submitted three conditional use requests for the proposal which features contiguous, adjacent lands that encompass 209 acres involving six parcels. The solar facilities were proposed on about 74 acres. The property is owned by the estate of William Emmett Stevens.

A special exemption permit request to allow a five-megawatt utility-scale solar operation on a property about two miles north of the town of Amherst on U.S. 29 received denial from the Amherst County Board of Supervisors on a 4-1 vote last week. OneEnergy Development LLC, the applicant, sought to place about 12,000 solar panels on fixed-tilt tracking structures on land zoned agricultural residential, A-1, on roughly 20 acres on a 73-acre property owned by Buffalo Ridge Airsports, LLC. The top of the proposed panels would be no taller than 14 feet and the project named Hyssop Solar would interconnect to Appalachian Power Company's existing distribution lines.