The Riesz transform of codimension smaller than one and the Wolff energy

Fix $d\geq 2$, and $s\in (d-1,d)$. We characterize the non-negative locally finite non-atomic Borel measures $\mu$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$ for which the associated $s$-Riesz transform is bounded in $L^2(\mu)$ in terms of the Wolff energy. This extends the range of $s$ in which the Mateu-Prat-Verdera characterization of measures with bounded $s$-Riesz transform is known. As an application, we give a metric characterization of the removable sets for locally Lipschitz continuous solutions of the fractional Laplacian operator $(-\Delta)^{\alpha/2}$, $\alpha\in (1,2)$, in terms of a well-known capacity from non-linear potential theory. This result contrasts sharply with removability results for Lipschitz harmonic functions.