Fix $dgeq 2$, and $sin (d-1,d)$. The authors 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, the authors 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.