The region’s largest battery yet recently came online in Massachusetts, where state climate policies aimed at cleaning up the grid are boosting the tech.

By Julian Spector, Canary Media

Enormous new batteries keep appearing on the grid, making it devilishly tricky to keep track of which is the biggest in a given region. That’s certainly the case in New England, where acute power needs and robust state climate goals are fueling a buildout of big batteries that keep breaking capacity records.

Canary Media recently covered the inauguration of the 175-megawatt Cross Town battery in Gorham, Maine, which was the largest in New England when it began operating in late November. But that trophy has already passed to a 250-megawatt facility in Medway, Massachusetts, southwest of Boston and about 10 miles from the Patriots’ Gillette Stadium.

The Medway battery came online fully Feb. 25, according to developer VC Renewables, a subsidiary of global energy trader Vitol.

“To be fair, I don’t expect Medway to hold that title for very long, either,” said Tom Bitting, managing director at Advantage Capital, which supported the project with a $158 million tax equity deal. ​“There are other batteries being developed in New England that are bigger, but I think it is all just a sign that we need all of it, and there’s huge demand for it.”

For instance, Jupiter Power, a heavyweight in Texas’ booming grid storage market, is developing the 700-megawatt/2.8-gigawatt-hour Trimount battery plant at a former oil-storage site in Everett, Massachusetts, just north of Boston. Jupiter aims to finish the project in 2028 or 2029. Trimount is slated to be among the largest stand-alone batteries in the whole country — Vistra’s battery in Moss Landing, California, set that record with 750 megawatts/​3 gigawatt-hours, before much of that capacity burned up in a disastrous fire.

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April 15, 2026 – Today, a nonpartisan coalition of environmental organizations and Roxbury community residents filed a motion and a proposed amicus brief supporting New Jersey’s and Roxbury Township’s request for a preliminary injunction to the United States District Court of New Jersey. 

The emergency request seeks to stop the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from converting a vacant industrial warehouse in Roxbury into a mass immigration detention facility.

The warehouse is in the New Jersey Highlands, a 1,300-square-mile, environmentally vital region stretching from Philipsburg on the Delaware River to West Milford and Mahwah on the New York border, encompassing 88 municipalities across seven counties. Designated for protection, it provides clean drinking water to over 6.2 million residents (two-thirds of the state) while offering significant scenic, historic, and recreational areas.

On March 20, 2026, New Jersey and Roxbury filed a complaint and, subsequently, on April 7, requested emergency relief because DHS has indicated it plans to begin construction activities as early as late May. The complaint claims the construction threatens New Jerseyans’ drinking water resources, environmental justice communities already overburdened with stressors, important but constrained sewer service systems, a state-issued environmental protection easement, and other environmental harms. 

Earlier in March of 2026, another federal court found an identical DHS decision to convert a warehouse into an ICE detention facility likely unlawful because federal law requires a full assessment of the impacts on state and local infrastructure and environmental resources.

“This warehouse conversion in the midst of New Jersey’s environmentally sensitive Highlands Region must be stopped because federal law requires a hard look at the impacts and none has been offered,” said Julia Somers, the Executive Director of the Highlands Coalition “The Highlands Region is protected because the State Legislature found that it is a ‘landscape of special significance’ and an important source of drinking water depended on by over 70% of the State’s residents.”

“DHS and ICE’s misguided decision to target the Roxbury Township property for their detention center makes absolutely no sense as this property is largely protected from further development through a conservation easement,” said Alison Mitchell, executive director of New Jersey Conservation Foundation. “From an environmental protection standpoint, their plans run afoul of federal requirements and counter to New Jersey’s efforts to protect critical wildlife habitat and the Highlands region.”

Concerned Residents of the Roxbury Community, a group of local residents most immediately affected by DHS’s plans, joined the brief to provide first-hand perspective on what the conversion would mean for daily life in Roxbury. 

Ann Mauro, a member of the Concerned Residents, wrote, “I’ve lived in Roxbury Township for nearly 30 years and have been actively involved the entire time. My family went through the public school system, played on teams at the parks, and volunteered with local groups to serve our community. Our neighborhoods, parks, clubs, businesses, and schools all reflect the people who live here, and all would be negatively impacted by an ICE warehouse.”

Related: Judge sets May 12 hearing in fight over Roxbury ICE plan

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The Mamdani administration is proposing a new bike lane on 72nd Street that would connect to Central Park, providing cyclists with a new link between the East and Hudson Rivers.

The Department of Transportation presented its plans for the two-way protected bike lane to Community Board 7 in the Upper West Side on Tuesday night. It included cutting the four traffic lanes on 72nd Street in half and new turning restrictions to protect cyclists in the bike lane.

“Designs like this make our streets safer for everyone, whether you’re biking, walking, or driving,” DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn said in a press release.

The city plans to build the Upper West Side portion of the bike lane first. The transportation department plans to present its plan to the community covering the Upper East Side in the fall.

If implemented, the plan would be a substantial cross-town upgrade to the bike lane network. The only cross-town protected bike lanes are either on the north or south ends of the park. Cyclists looking to head across town through Central Park face limited options that involve riding in traffic or riding a big section of the park’s loop.

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