Winter savings are in store for more than 65,000 Massachusetts households as two electric utilities slash their rates for heat pump owners below last year’s already discounted prices. Last winter, Massachusetts became the first state to require major utilities to offer a lower seasonal rate for all the electricity…

Twenty years ago, a group of Northeastern states signed on to a plan to reduce the greenhouse gases spewing from power plants by making generators pay for the carbon they release. Since then, the region’s power sector emissions have dropped by half, and states have reaped more than $10 billion in revenue to invest in…

Three Massachusetts utilities are suing Canadian energy giant Hydro-Québec after it failed to deliver promised hydropower for several days during a cold snap this winter. Hydro-Québec, in turn, is suing the utilities for withholding payment for power that was delivered. The dispute is the latest in a string of…

Dig Energy , a startup on a quest to vastly improve geothermal drilling, has completed its first commercial project, digging seven boreholes for a geothermal heating and cooling system at the headquarters of Boston general contracting firm Suffolk Construction. Dig first stepped into the public eye almost exactly a…

The troubled reelection campaign of Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee is facing a new obstacle: a super PAC determined to take down foes of clean energy. The Invest in Tomorrow Coalition has declared McKee its first Democratic target, following campaigns against three Republican primary candidates, all of whom lost their…

For nearly two decades, Maine has tried to build utility-scale wind in the northern reaches of the state. On Tuesday morning, utility regulators brought that vision a little closer to reality, choosing an 800-megawatt wind farm proposal and a 1.2-gigawatt transmission line plan from the bids it received earlier this…

The waters of Boston Harbor, most famous for the crates of tea hurled rebelliously into them more than 250 years ago, could soon be the site of a whole new kind of disruption. “We’re launching a thermal revolution,” said Zeyneb Magavi, executive director of the Home Energy Efficiency Team, or HEET, a Boston-based…

When the Trump administration issued stop-work orders on all five offshore wind projects under construction late last year, it offered one justification: The turbines could compromise national security. Experts were immediately critical of this assertion , not least because it came after months of unrelenting…

When Marsha Gleason and her husband decided it was time to downsize from the 2,000-square-foot bungalow where they’d lived for the past 40 years, they didn’t head to Florida or research local retirement communities. Instead, they looked to their own backyard. The pair sold their house in Northborough, Massachusetts,…

Residents in four lower-income Massachusetts neighborhoods now have access to a new, low-cost option for running errands or getting to appointments: a shared, solar-powered electric vehicle. The innovative pilot program, CommunityEV Carshare , launched Monday and offers eligible drivers discounted prices on hourly…

Haven Energy is the newest company offering home battery service in Massachusetts for a low monthly payment, a model supporters say could accelerate adoption of residential storage. Starting in four counties in the southeastern part of the state, the company will provide customers with a 15-kilowatt-hour home…

Massachusetts state senators are taking aim at a pipeline replacement program they say is inflating natural gas bills while doing little to make the system safer. The Senate earlier this month passed a sweeping energy-affordability bill that aims to save consumers roughly $14 billion over the next 10 years. One way…

Residents of Springfield, Massachusetts, have spent more than a decade fighting a proposal to build a dirty wood-burning plant in the already-polluted city. Several times they thought they had killed it, only to have it rise from the dead. Now, the “zombie project” could soon perish for real. That’s because language…

The Massachusetts Senate yesterday passed a sweeping energy-affordability bill that aims to save residents $14 billion over 10 years in a state that has some of the country’s highest utility costs. The legislation includes measures that would change the state’s energy procurement process, put guardrails on the…

A new solar installation on Martha’s Vineyard is set to lower utility costs for hundreds of low-income, year-round residents on the island best known as an upscale vacation destination. The project is the first to come out of a new program that channels solar savings to households grappling with high electricity…

Earlier this month, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, signed a law with a host of policies meant to boost solar energy: It extends the state’s renewable energy incentives, calls for the creation of a new community solar program, authorizes plug-in solar , and requires automated residential solar permitting. …

The Massachusetts Senate on Wednesday unveiled its long-awaited energy legislation, a wide-ranging bill that touches on dozens of topics from plug-in solar to renewable energy procurement. Sponsors say the measures could save consumers some $14 billion over the next 10 years. Perhaps most notable, however, is what…

When the New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line started carrying electricity from Canada into Maine in January, supporters hailed the project as a triumph for renewable power. Now, after nearly six months of operations, the early numbers raise questions about whether the project will be able to advance…

Geothermal networks are taking off across the U.S., with roughly 30 such projects in various stages in Massachusetts, Colorado, and elsewhere. These systems — which use electric heat pumps and thermal energy from underground to warm and cool buildings — are key to weaning communities off polluting fossil-fueled…

Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee’s efforts to slash funding for energy efficiency and roll back renewable energy targets appear poised to fail after the legislature advanced the state budget on Tuesday evening. Earlier this year, McKee, a Democrat, proposed significant cuts to energy-efficiency programs in an attempt to…