New Hampshire
New Hampshire’s Energy Landscape in 2025 – Concord Monitor
The biggest national news in 2025 often involved energy — how to make it, who gets to use it, who is going to need it. New Hampshire has sidestepped most of those questions so far but still saw plenty of energy news.
Goodbye, coal
The closing of the Merrimack Station power plant in Bow sounds like New Hampshire’s biggest energy news of the year and got a lot of national coverage along the lines of “New England shuts down coal!” but to be honest, it didn’t make much difference. The plant had been winding down for years, having run for fewer than 30 days in 2024, and would almost certainly have shut in a year or so because it lost what is known as capacity funding.
The more interesting question is what will replace it. Granite Shore Power President Jim Andrews has long touted plans to turn Merrimack Station, as well as the long-closed Schiller site in Portsmouth, into 21st century power plants using batteries and solar power, with perhaps some offshore wind assembly on the shores of the Piscataqua River.
But Donald Trump was elected and promptly began to trash wind and solar power, yanking subsidies and throwing up regulatory roadblocks. Granite Shore now says it is looking at all possibilities.
Both sites have excellent connections to the power grid, which makes them very valuable.
We need more electricity
New Hampshire, like New England in general, have not been swamped with proposals to build massive, power-hungry data centers for bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence. Those proposals have led to forecasts that national demand for electricity will spike by a quarter or more within a few years.
ISO-New England, the group that runs the six-state power grid, projects an 11% increase in electricity demand over the next decade, largely driven by the electrification of heating and transportation. That’s a lot, especially after years of stagnant demand, but it’s not panic-inducing.
Sidestepping regulation
New Hampshire is set to become the first state to allow energy providers to skip most utility regulation if they don’t connect to the grid. Supporters say it adds much-needed flexibility to the hidebound energy industry while critics call it a sop to very large energy users, such as data centers. It’s not clear how much it will be used, but it’s an interesting experiment, at least.
Community solar OK, wind not so much
The Republican-controlled legislature isn’t quite as anti-solar power as President Trump but it shows a lack of enthusiasm for renewable energy. They passed a bill loosening stormwater runoff rules for solar arrays but tightened the Renewable Energy Fund and as the year ended, they were looking to make severe changes to the Renewable Energy Portfolio.
On the other hand, there’s community solar. Thanks to a series of bills over the past few years, arrays up to 5 megawatts can share production with multiple customers, making big projects that opened or are being built in Exeter, Bedford, Derry, Warner and now Concord financially feasible. It seems likely that 2026 will set a record for the most solar added to the grid in New Hampshire. If the legislature would let private companies be community-solar customers, we’d do even better.
As for wind power, legislators echoed Trump’d hatred of the industry. Gov. Ayotte agreed to shorten the name of the Office of Offshore Wind Industry Development and Energy Innovation to simply the Office of Energy Innovation as part of removing virtually all support for wind power on land or in the sea. Not that we gave much support to begin with.
Ironically, this month saw New England receive a record amount of power from wind turbines — more than 1,600 megawatts at one point — as the Vineyard Wind offshore farm finally got up to speed.
What about natural gas? Nuclear? Heating oil?
As has been the case for many years, natural gas was the fuel to supply about half of New England’s electricity in 2025 and heating to about one-fifth of New Hampshire’s homes.
Many politicians are making noises about building more pipelines to bring in more natural gas from New York or Pennsylvania; Gov. Ayotte expressed support for bringing the proposed Constitution Pipeline, which was killed in 2020, back to life. Many argue that such work would be prohibitively expensive and make the region even more dependent on a single type of fuel.
Natural gas has traditionally been very cheap compared to other types of fuel but its price is increasingly affected by global patterns because of an increase in exports.
A separate question is whether the push to electrify the region’s heating can cut into our use of heating oil. Northern New England is by far the national leader in using that dirty fuel for heating; switching to electric heat pumps is almost always cheaper and definitely cleaner. New Hampshire is one of five states in the New England Heat Pump Accelerator, which looks to spend $450 million from Joe Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act to encourage more heat pumps.
New Hampshire
Manchester Man Indicted On Pembroke Child Assault Charges: Merrimack County Superior Court Roundup
CONCORD, NH — A grand jury in Merrimack County recently indicted the individuals listed below.
Robert S. Bzdula III, 23, of West Chrisco Road in Seagrove, North Carolina, on a felony count of attempted aggravated felonious sexual assault. He was accused of exposing his erect penis in front of a child under 13 between Dec. 1, 2022, and July 26, 2025, in Dunbarton.
John Camden, 42, a homeless man now located in Concord, on a felony controlled drug, prohibited-fentanyl, on Jan. 6 in Concord.
Timothy Casey, 24, a member of Concord’s unhoused community, on a felony receiving stolen property charge. He was accused of possessing stolen copper pipes from Yamas on South Main Street in Concord, on March 18.
Keyan Chambers, 30, of Brown Avenue in Manchester, on second-degree assault and second-degree assault-attempt charges. He was accused of assaulting a child in Pembroke, causing hemorrhaging to his neck on March 27, 2025. Between March 1 and March 31, 2025, Chambers pushed the child against the wall, “toward the commission of… strangulation,” according to an indictment, in Pembroke.
Megan R. Champagne, 40, a homeless woman now located in Concord, on a felony count of conspiracy to commit theft by unauthorized taking. She agreed with David King to steal a tent from Target in Concord on Dec. 10, 2025, according to the indictment.
Sarai J. Chapman, 35, of Spofford Street in Claremont, on a felony possession of methamphetamine charge on Nov. 25, 2025, in Henniker.
Editor’s note: This post was derived from information supplied by the Merrimack County Superior Court and does not indicate a conviction. This link explains how to request the removal of a name from New Hampshire Patch police reports.
Amanda S. Colgan, 38, of Main Street in Claremont, on a felony count of controlled drug act; acts prohibited-meth in Bradford on Dec. 30, 2025.
Jay Thomas Johnson, 50, of Woodbryer Avenue in Greensborough, North Carolina, on a felony count of identity fraud. He was accused of posing as another and requesting the man’s detailed banking information at Merrimack County Savings Bank in Concord on Oct. 6, 2025.
Matthew W. Kelly, 46, with a last known address of Robie Road in Salisbury, on a felony count of penalty; registration of criminal offenders. He was accused of failing to let Concord police of his residence on Feb. 2. Kelly is a Tier III sex offender due to a rape conviction in Massachusetts in September 2003.
Stephanie M. Kelly, 37, of Pheasant Lane in Manchester, on a felony controlled drug act; acts prohibited-meth charge on May 8, 2024, in Hooksett.
Kayleigh King, 23, of Union Street in Concord, on a felony assault by prisoners charge. While in the Merrimack County Jail in Boscawen, she was accused of kicking a corrections officer in the stomach on Feb. 20.
Timothy J. Leclair, 45, of Canterbury, on possession of fentanyl and possession of a fentanyl and meth mix charges, both felonies, on May 4, 2025, in Hooksett.
New Hampshire
Cops Searching For Missing Man | Rollover Crash | House Speaker To Step Down | More: PM Patch NH
Community Corner
Also: Homeless burglar accused of burglarizing store for cigarettes; 2026 political signup updates; Statehouse votes; sports notes; more.
CONCORD, NH — Here are some share-worthy stories from the New Hampshire Patch network to discuss this afternoon and evening.
This post features stories and information published during the past 24 hours.
Missing Nashua Man Frequents Lawrence And Lowell, Police Say: Christopher Serrano was last seen on April 20, and family and friends are concerned for his well-being.
Find out what’s happening in Concordfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Rollover Crash In Concord Closes South Main Street; 1 Sent To The Hospital: Video: South Main Street between Perley and Water streets was closed to traffic for about 90 minutes after a collision on Friday morning.
Homeless Felon, Previously Convicted Of Burglary, Accused Of Burglarizing Concord Market Basket For Ciggies: Kevin Gobeil, who has been arrested dozens of times in the capital city, faces another felony charge after a September 2025 incident.
Find out what’s happening in Concordfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Blood Drives | Farmers Markets | Historical Society Events | More: The Salem Patch Weekender: NH PBS Spring Auction; books and brews; wildflowers, waterfalls, and garden trains; addiction recovery program; stories; arts and crafts.
Technical Trouble Delays Sentencing For Trans Ex-State Rep. In Child Sex Abuse Images Case: Once hailed as one of the “LGBTQIA+ Democrats who are the backbone of the Granite State,” Stacie Laughton is facing decades in prison.
Woman Injured In Rollover | Dating App Hookup Investigation Leads To Rape Charges | More: PM Patch NH: Also: “Substance abuse reduction initiative” nets 6; 2026 candidate filings, other political notes; argument leads to woman being run over.
2026 Political Posts
Here is some of the latest news from Patch partners.
🌱 Patch AM: GoFundMe Efforts Set Up To Help Victims Of Nashua Apartment Building Fire: Follow-Up
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