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SOLAR: Connecticut’s governor wants to allow the state’s schools to quadruple their solar panel use over the next few years by no longer holding them to an annual solar installation cap. (CT Post)
ALSO:
OFFSHORE WIND:
POLICY: A panel of energy experts says New York can’t meet its goal of achieving 70% renewable energy by 2030, citing a lack of available labor, the stakeholder process and insufficient transmission capacity. (RTO Insider, subscription)
EMISSIONS: New Jersey environment officials say the state’s net greenhouse gas emissions in 2021 were equivalent to 1.7% of the entire country’s gross emissions. (NJ Spotlight)
STORAGE: A new report from a coalition of public agencies finds four-hour battery storage projects would perform better than two-hour storage and new fossil fuel-fired peaker plants, factoring in air pollution, emissions and overall cost. (RTO Insider, subscription)
GRID: Constellation Energy is among those asking federal energy regulators to stick with the original results of PJM Interconnection’s last base capacity auction, but Maryland and Delaware commissioners and public advocates say doing so would more than double capacity costs in their zone. (Utility Dive)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
TRANSIT: In New York, a Republican lawmaker pushes his colleagues to repeal the Manhattan congestion toll pricing plan, slated to go into effect in two months despite confusion over who gets tolled and when. (NBC New York, Gothamist)
UTILITIES:
NUCLEAR: North Dakota officials say nuclear power may provide a long-term solution to help meet the state’s growing power demand as coal plants retire. (Prairie Public)
SOLAR:
EFFICIENCY: Wisconsin regulators will soon face decisions about how to structure $146 million in federally funded rebate programs for energy efficiency and electrification. (Capital Times)
UTILITIES:
CLEAN ENERGY: The school board in Madison, Wisconsin, sets a net-zero emissions goal by 2045, overriding a previous goal of using 100% renewable energy by 2040. (Wisconsin State Journal)
PIPELINES:
OIL & GAS: Industry groups in North Dakota claim the Biden administration’s plan to increase royalty fees and leasing rates for drilling on federal land to prevent well abandonment attempts to address a problem that doesn’t exist. (KFYR)
HYDROPOWER: University of Wisconsin researchers aim to boost the efficiency of hydropower turbines with a new method that limits problems caused by low water pressure. (Spectrum News)
COMMENTARY: An author and longtime nuclear energy reporter says a plan to restart a Michigan nuclear plant would waste billions of dollars when building out renewables would be a far better option. (Detroit Free Press)
Thanks to a new infusion of state funding, three projects benefiting traditionally under-resourced Black, Brown and Indigenous communities in the greater Chicago area have taken one important step closer to fruition.
Last week, the Illinois Climate Bank unanimously passed a resolution to authorize loan funds of up to $1.6 million for three community-based solar projects owned by Green Energy Justice Cooperative, launched in 2022 by Blacks in Green (BIG). This increases the total funding to $2.9 million for GEJC’s community solar projects, a portion of which is privately funded.
The money will be devoted to the pre-development phase of the project, including public outreach, an interconnection study, and a deposit for renewable energy credits awarded through the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA), said Naomi Davis, founder and CEO of Blacks in Green.
“Our $2.9 million in predevelopment costs include payments to our electric utility, ComEd — fees to connect our solar system to their grid and a 5% down payment for our renewable energy credits — like buying a house, you have the financing and the down payment,” Davis said.
“The sweet spot of this pre-development funding is what we invest in building relationships, educating them about the power of cooperative ownership and management, and collaborating with them to build a clean energy economy right where they live,” she said. “We’ve got two years before we flip the switch and start monthly savings and clean energy comfort… and between now and then we’ll be enrolling thousands of community subscribers in conversations for organizing, training and hopefully inspiring them.”
Energy self-sufficiency is one of the eight key principles of BIG’s Sustainable Square Mile concept, which the organization aims to replicate around the country.
“We say communities should own, develop, and manage their land and energy, and with our $10 million EPA Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center (TCTAC) award, BIG is offering free/open source access to our energy justice portfolio, which includes this 9 MW solar project and community geothermal and wind,” said Davis in a news release.
“With our energy affordability bill before the Illinois General Assembly, and our energy auditing workforce launching this summer, we aim to connect the dots of community-driven, community-scale energy solutions for low and moderate-income communities across America.”
In December 2023, the Illinois Power Agency recommended awarding the three solar projects, valued at $25.7 million, with $12.5 million in renewable energy credits. The three projects, located in Aurora, Naperville, and Romeoville, Illinois, would each generate 3 megawatts. Once completed, they will provide the dual benefit of lowering the disproportionate energy burden in BIPOC and low-income households, while providing a community stake in clean energy generation.
“When this project is completed over the next couple of years, it will be the largest non-governmental, non-utility, minority-community-owned solar project in Illinois. And as such, it will be the fulfillment of years of dreams and work by our Green Energy Justice Cooperative, to share middle-class jobs and wealth-building with historically deprived and distressed individuals and families throughout this area.” said Rev. Tony Pierce, GEJC board member and CEO of Sun Bright Energy, in a news release.
“In doing so, it will be the beginning of lifting these kinds of individuals and families from the bottom of our economic pyramid into the middle class,” Pierce said. “And it will therefore be the beginning of bringing some closure to the Black and White wealth gap that exists in metro Chicago; in addition to reducing the carbon footprint in our area, to reduce climate change.”
For Davis, this level of recognition and financial support reflects more than a decade of advocacy and effort to ensure energy independence for her community of West Woodlawn on Chicago’s South Side – and beyond.
“The cooperative (GEJC) that we organized and funded fits in with our overall mission because we have, as a stated pillar of our work [intend] to increase the rate at which neighbor-owned businesses are created and sustained,” Davis told the Energy News Network in December.
“We understand that the number one employer of Black folks in America is Black folks in America. And we are very committed in our understanding of the whole-system problem common to Black communities everywhere, that we are committed to being a solution.”
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Amazon has installed more than 17,000 electric vehicle chargers at its warehouses over the last two years, making it the biggest U.S. private charging operator as it easily surpasses competitors’ clean vehicle goals. (Bloomberg)
ALSO:
OIL & GAS:
GEOTHERMAL: Geothermal has the potential to be a reliable, zero-emission source of energy that’s a natural transition from oil and gas drilling, experts say, if political tensions don’t derail its takeoff. (The Hill)
EFFICIENCY:
STORAGE: Dominion Energy sends a 1.5 MW metal-hydrogen battery to the historically Black Virginia State University to power a venue and become part of a hands-on laboratory and research project for its engineering program. (Energy News Network)
EQUITY:
CLIMATE:
SOLAR: California lawmakers introduce bills aimed at mitigating the effects of or revoking recent state policies slashing incentives for rooftop and community solar. (Canary Media)
OIL & GAS: The Biden administration finalizes rules raising royalty rates and reclamation bond amounts for oil and gas drilling on federal land, drawing mixed reactions from industry and advocates. (High Country News)
ALSO: Arguments begin in New Mexico advocates’ lawsuit accusing the state’s fossil fuel-friendly policies of failing to protect residents from oil and gas pollution. (NM Political Report)
TRANSITION:
SOLAR:
UTILITIES:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A California startup trains workers and develops software aimed at facilitating public electric vehicle charger maintenance and repair. (Los Angeles Times)
ELECTRIFICATION: Colorado launches an online calculator aimed at helping residents navigate home electrification incentives. (CPR)
TRANSPORTATION:
NUCLEAR: Federal regulators deny a developer’s claims they had greenlit a proposed nuclear microreactor project in Montana. (Billings Gazette)
COAL: Investors look to use coal from a Wyoming mine as feedstock for manufacturing cosmetics and fertilizer, as well as other non-combustion applications. (Cowboy State Daily)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Indiana officials say a pilot highway construction project that charges electric vehicles as they drive has the potential to spur greater adoption and change how the public thinks about EVs. (Inside Climate News)
ALSO: Cedar Rapids, Iowa, seeks federal funding to replace five diesel buses in its transportation fleet with hybrid diesel-electric models. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)
OHIO: Lt. Gov. Jon Husted refuses to say whether he knew about a $1 million contribution in 2017 from FirstEnergy to a political group that supported his campaign for governor. (Ohio Capital Journal)
UTILITIES: Proposed legislation in Illinois would subject municipal power agencies to more state oversight and require integrated resource planning as companies face growing scrutiny over large coal portfolios. (Daily Herald)
SOLAR:
POLITICS:
GRID:
PIPELINES: Four Great Lakes tribes urge a Michigan appeals court to overturn state regulators’ approval of a permit allowing Enbridge to build an underwater tunnel in the Straits of Mackinac to house Line 5. (E&E News, subscription)
COAL: Michigan regulators block a utility from recovering more than $1 million in excess charges from unprofitable coal plants owned by the Ohio Valley Electric Corp., in contrast to Ohio regulators’ approach. (Checks & Balances Project)
NUCLEAR: The lengthy outage of a Minnesota nuclear plant late last year occurred after Xcel Energy workers drilled through cables that interrupted power to equipment, the utility disclosed to federal regulators. (Star Tribune)
COMMENTARY: A Wisconsin conservative group says recent polling indicates strong support for clean energy among young rural voters, a key demographic that will be crucial for future GOP success in elections. (Journal Sentinel)
SOLAR: A think tank’s new report finds that New York has given very few state subsidies to low-income families for solar panel installations. (Gothamist)
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FOSSIL FUELS:
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ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
RENEWABLE ENERGY:
At 1.5 megawatts, the battery destined for a college campus near Petersburg, Virginia, might not be the mightiest in Dominion Energy’s growing storage fleet.
But don’t underestimate its power and reach.
In addition to providing backup power for Virginia State University’s main sports and entertainment venue, it will serve as a hands-on laboratory and research project for engineering students and faculty at the historically Black university.
“This is so exciting,” said Dawit Haile, dean of VSU’s College of Engineering and Technology. “Our students don’t know the challenges we are having to save energy when you need it later. Storage is the missing piece.”
It isn’t the first time the 4,000-student university has collaborated with the state’s biggest utility. For several years, Dominion has lined up professionals to teach students enrolled in a specialized power and energy curriculum.
That relationship prompted Haile to nudge Dominion when he found out the utility was seeking sites to test metal-hydrogen battery technology instead of a more commonplace lithium-ion model. The appeal of metal-hydrogen, a standard in the aerospace industry, is that the materials are longer-lasting and much slower to discharge.
“We were actually looking for a university so we could pull in the learning aspect,” said Dominion’s Ellen Jackson, program manager for the pilot project. “VSU really wants this to be a visible part of their campus.”
Utility regulators are now reviewing the proposal, which a hearing examiner with the State Corporation Commission has already recommended for approval. If greenlighted, it is expected to be operational by the end of 2027.
“Cost for the whole kit and caboodle is $14.4 million,” Jackson said, referencing the architectural design, construction and installation of a final product with a footprint that will likely include more than two dozen containers measuring 11 feet by 9 feet.
Haile, who has taught at VSU for 27 years, is eager for students to dive into lessons about battery configuration, building and maintenance. Collected data will help them assess efficiency, longevity and operational costs.
“So many of us take it for granted that energy powering our homes will be there, and we don’t think about the source,” he said. “Any opportunity we get to help students learn more about this profession, it’s a plus.”
The VSU pilot project is a small slice of the volume of battery storage the General Assembly expects Dominion to meet to comply with the Virginia Clean Economy Act.
By next year, that number needs to reach 250 MW. Targets are slated to rise to 1,200 MW by 2030 and then more than double to 2,700 MW by 2035. Dominion is aiming for 65% of the battery projects to be company-owned and the remainder to be power purchase agreements with third-party owners.
“We’re well on our way to meeting that first target,” said Brandon Martin, who manages a business development team that oversees Dominion’s battery projects. “We’ve seen a lot of pricing volatility, but some of that will start to work its way out.”
Thus far, Dominion has petitioned the State Corporation Commission for a total of 180 MW of battery storage projects. Of those, 98 MW are company-owned and the remaining 82 MW have third-party owners with power purchase agreements.
The largest one that regulators have approved is at Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia’s Loudoun County.
Once completed in late 2026, it will generate up to 100 MW of solar energy and store up to 50 MW of power, enough clean energy to electrify more than 37,000 Virginia homes at peak output. Dominion broke ground on that project last August.
“In the big picture, battery storage might be in its infancy, but it’s the unsung hero of the renewable energy profile,” Martin said. “It’s critical to be able to store and discharge when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.”
Meanwhile, the 1.5 MW initiative for VSU is one of three non-lithium-ion battery projects — totaling about 10.5 MW — under review by regulators. Other pioneering projects in the mix are a 5 MW iron-air battery and a 4 MW zinc-hybrid battery that Dominion plans to install at the gas-fired Darbytown Power Station in Henrico County, near Richmond.
If approved, construction on the pair of Darbytown pilots would be operational by late 2026.
Batteries aren’t a one-size-fits-all technology, said Martin, adding that smaller projects are geared for the distribution side of electron delivery.
“Trying out nascent technologies is going to be critical for future deployment,” he said. “Utilities need to know if they’ll perform as anticipated.”
Interim energy storage targets spelled out in the Clean Economy Act allow the utility to innovate with a variety of technologies before scaling up.
The advantages of experimenting with resources other than lithium is the extended discharge time, availability and durability, Martin said. For instance, an iron-air battery can discharge power for up to 100 hours. While zinc-hybrid batteries have roughly the same discharge time as a lithium-ion model, they’re manufactured with a readily accessible chemical element.
“They don’t compete with the same raw materials,” he said, referencing the high demand for lithium for electric vehicles, cell phones and other electronics. “As you’re thinking about geopolitical concerns and price volatility, these components take that out of the mix.”
Still, Martin continued, promising ideas need a path to commercialization or they will stay on a shelf gathering dust.
“It’s exciting that this space has a number of new entrants,” he said. “Other utilities will be piloting different technologies. By not all choosing the same ones, the energy community can learn what’s successful and where much quicker.
“We want to provide as many solutions as possible at the lowest cost to customers.”
The teams that both Martin and Jackson lead have spent countless hours comparing notes with utility peer groups, technology vendors and experts at the nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to narrow down their battery choices.
For instance, Dominion has contracted with EnerVenue, a California company, to build the metal-hydrogen battery for the VSU campus.
The company, founded in 2020 by a Stanford University materials science researcher, is borrowing the same technology that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration deployed to power signature — and distant — enterprises such as the Hubble Space Telescope, the Mars Exploration Rovers and the International Space Station.
“This is a proven chemistry that we are commercializing for the grid,” said Brad Dore, EnerVenue’s vice president of global marketing. “The difference is that NASA didn’t have to care about the cost — and we do.”
In a nutshell, here’s how it works. During the energy charging process, the water inside the vessel is split, creating hydrogen gas. At discharge, that gas recombines into water.
Such batteries can discharge for up to 12 hours, said Dore, more than double the capability of a typical lithium-ion battery.
He emphasized that the charging process is stable, repeatable and doesn’t cause the degradation common with battery chemistries such as lithium-ion. The other plus, he added, is that the metal, which is 99% nickel, means most of the battery is recyclable when it does finally wear out.
Once Dominion partnered with VSU, the utility collaborated with EPRI researchers to sort through technologies and manufacturers, as well as basics such as cost and land footprint.
“They did a lot of the legwork for us,” Jackson said about matching a battery with the 6,000-seat Multi-Purpose Center, which attracts audiences from the university and the community.
Fortunately, the battery won’t have to be shipped from California because EnerVenue announced a year ago that it is constructing an energy storage factory in Shelby County, in north central Kentucky. That will translate to a much shorter trip to the Petersburg campus three years from now.
In the meantime, Haile and fellow faculty members are creating a power storage curriculum.
The professor is already anticipating the new battery could be a springboard to attract more on-campus energy storage projects as the technology evolves.
“The potential is huge,” he said. “Our mission here is access and opportunity, so to be able to show our students what the future is, that’s a big deal.”
UTILITIES: Questions still abound about the Tennessee Valley Authority CEO’s decision to replace a Tennessee coal plant with a gas-fired plant and 122-mile pipeline without public approval by the TVA board, and despite warnings from the U.S. EPA that the environmental review underlying the project was inadequate. (WPLN)
ALSO:
OVERSIGHT:
SOLAR: An energy company completes construction of a 637 MW solar farm in Texas. (Renewables Now)
POLITICS: A Florida Republican consultant admits to approving a plan by an ex-state lawmaker to recruit a third-party candidate to siphon votes and defeat a Democratic candidate targeted by Florida Power & Light. (Floodlight/Miami Herald)
TRANSITION: Duke Energy experiments with microgrids and solar panel efficiency, and invests in grid improvements as it receives rate increases in North Carolina to transition from coal. (WRAL)
GOVERNMENT: A new study reveals federal grant funding to assist low-income Virginians with paying their bills is shrinking and already falls far short of the need, while a separate report suggests participation in a regional carbon market could provide another funding source. (Virginia Mercury)
OIL & GAS:
PIPELINES: A West Virginia gas cooperative association receives $2.1 million in federal money to relocate a natural gas pipeline from a flood-prone creek. (Bluefield Daily Telegraph)
COMMENTARY:
HYDROGEN: Xcel Energy says plans for an Upper Midwest hydrogen hub are jeopardized by proposed federal tax credit rules that would bar utilities from diverting existing clean energy generation to power hydrogen facilities. (Star Tribune)
SOLAR: A proposed 600 MW solar project outside Lawrence, Kansas, highlights land use debates with utility-scale developments and concerns about removing prime farmland. (Flatland)
OHIO: Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted refuse to comment so far on the apparent suicide of former regulator Sam Randazzo, who previously had their support and was a key player in the state’s largest corruption scandal in history. (ABC 5)
CLIMATE: Experts say Chicago’s climate lawsuit against major oil companies is likely to be moved back to local courts ahead of a long legal dispute with deep-pocketed companies. (Chicago Sun-Times)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
NUCLEAR: Federal regulators will hold a public information meeting next week in Michigan on an unprecedented plan to reopen a shuttered nuclear plant. (MLive)
COAL: A Congress member from Michigan co-sponsors legislation that backers say would close a loophole in federal law that allows coal companies to skirt mine remediation requirements when they file for bankruptcy. (E&E News, subscription)
UTILITIES: Ratepayers in northeastern Ohio are set for lower electricity bills this summer as FirstEnergy pays about 27% less for wholesale power at auction this year. (Cleveland.com)
COMMENTARY:
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