Back
This story was originally published by Canary Media.
California has long led the way on electric vehicles, but another Western state is challenging the Golden State’s top spot.
Between July and September, nearly 25 percent of the vehicles registered in Colorado were electric or plug-in hybrids. In California, that figure was just over 24 percent. It’s not enough to crown Colorado the new undisputed leader in EVs, but it’s a notable milestone — no other state has ever surpassed California in terms of EV registrations, according to James Di Filippo, principal policy analyst at Atlas Public Policy.
It’s the culmination of a “pretty dramatic” trend line for Colorado’s EV adoption since the start of 2023, Di Filippo said. Coloradans bought just over 41,000 EVs last year, up from roughly 23,000 in 2022.
Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, announced the accomplishment last week, touting it as a sign of the state’s commitment to reaching its climate goals and improving air quality. “This new data shows that demand for EVs continues to increase and especially with competitive state and federal rebates, drastically cutting the cost of an EV and saving people money,” Polis said in a press release.
Colorado has some of the most generous incentives for EV sales in the country, Di Filippo said. Its policies and incentives have helped make the cars more affordable, while the state’s investments in charging infrastructure have made owning an electric car more practical.
All Coloradans can receive a $5,000 state tax credit for purchasing or leasing a new EV or plug-in hybrid priced up to $80,000. That credit is available through the end of this year, then will decrease to $3,500 starting in 2025. EVs valued under $35,000 are eligible for an additional tax credit of $2,500 — for a total potential state credit of $7,500.
Through the Vehicle Exchange Colorado program, income-qualified residents can trade in old or highly polluting gas cars in exchange for a $6,000 rebate to put toward a new EV or plug-in hybrid purchase or lease, or $4,000 for a used one.
The state tax credits and the vehicle-exchange rebates can be combined with federal tax credits, which currently offer up to $7,500 for a new EV lease or purchase or $4,000 for a used EV.
The state has also worked over the past few years to install more public chargers. There are currently over 5,500 public charging ports across Colorado. This year, the state plans to install another 576 ports using $5 million in funding from the Colorado Energy Office.
In 2020, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projected that 580,000 zero-emission vehicles would be sold in the U.S. in 2023. But actual sales last year were almost two and a half times greater at 1.43 million. This year, Cox Automotive expects sales to climb even higher, despite gloomy forecasts issued by some analysts earlier in 2024.
According to estimates from Kelley Blue Book, EV sales made up 8.9 percent of all vehicle sales in the country in the third quarter of this year — the highest share ever recorded, and an increase from 7.8 percent in the same time period last year.
The Biden administration set a goal for EVs to make up half of all new vehicle sales by 2030. As of this February, sales were on track to meet that goal, though the picture is more uncertain heading into the second Trump administration. The president-elect reportedly plans to eliminate federal EV tax credits and roll back Environmental Protection Agency tailpipe emissions rules — against the wishes of the nation’s largest automakers, including Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis.
Transportation is the single largest category of carbon emissions in the country, at 28 percent, driven mainly by trucks, SUVs, and other road vehicles.
Colorado has an even more aggressive EV goal than the federal government, aiming for 82 percent of all car sales to be electric by 2032. Looking ahead, EV registrations and sales in the state likely won’t continue to outpace California, Di Filippo said, since “the trend line for California is still steeper overall.”
“This isn’t necessarily a story of Colorado just beating California out right,” he said. “This is really a story of EV success.”
UTILITIES: S&P downgrades the credit rating of three Connecticut utilities, with executives blaming state regulators for rejecting rate increases as costs increase. (CT Insider)
ALSO: New Jersey lawmakers advance a bill that would require utilities to alert customers mid-month if their energy usage is unusually high. (New Jersey Monitor)
CLIMATE:
OVERSIGHT: New Hampshire’s consumer advocate is backing legislation to clarify the authorities of the state’s Public Utilities Commission and its recently created Department of Energy. (New Hampshire Bulletin)
WIND: A labor leader says Maine should reach out to other states to help support a deepwater port for offshore wind construction, after multiple attempts to secure federal funds have failed. (Maine Public)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: New Jersey has surpassed 200,000 electric vehicle registrations, but an advocate says a lack of charging stations and shifting tax credits make it unlikely the state will hit its goal of 330,000 by next year. (NJ.com)
SOLAR:
COMMENTARY:
GRID: Google partners with a climate investor and a clean energy developer to build renewable power and storage projects co-located with data centers, with a goal of reducing the centers’ anticipated demand on the grid. (Canary Media)
ALSO:
OIL & GAS:
POLITICS:
CLIMATE: Expressing concern for the state’s fossil fuel industries, two Pennsylvania lawmakers say they plan legislation to remove the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and require legislative approval for future agreements. (Indiana Gazette)
WIND: A labor leader says Maine should reach out to other states to help support a deepwater port for offshore wind construction, after multiple attempts to secure federal funds have failed. (Maine Public)
STORAGE: A Georgia company announces that its battery recycling facility will produce and market lithium carbonate — an important component in electric vehicle batteries that until now has only been mined. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
EFFICIENCY: Milwaukee officials seek local manufacturing of highly efficient wall panels for prefabricated homes to resolve challenges of building net-zero modular homes for low-income residents. (Energy News Network)
Living in a net-zero home is often a luxury for those who can afford solar panels, state-of-the-art HVAC and other innovations and renovations.
But lower-income people are those who could benefit most from energy cost savings, and those who suffer most from extreme climate. Milwaukee is trying to address this disconnect by building net-zero homes for low-income buyers in partnership with Habitat for Humanity, a marquee project of the city’s 2023 Climate and Equity Plan.
In September, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a $3.4 million grant that will go toward Milwaukee’s construction of 35 homes on vacant lots in disadvantaged neighborhoods and the opening of a factory to make wall panels for net-zero manufactured homes.
City leaders have found the undertaking more challenging than expected, especially on the factory front. But they hope overcoming roadblocks will help create a new local and regional market for energy-efficient, affordable prefabricated homes, while also training a new generation of architects in the sector through partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning.
“It remains an ambitious project,” said Milwaukee environmental sustainability director Erick Shambarger. “We’re trying to support equity, climate, new technology, manufacturing. It takes some time, but we’re excited about it and looking forward to making it a success.”
Panelized, prefabricated homes can be built relatively cheaply, but making them highly energy efficient is a different story. A handful of small companies nationwide make the wall panels used in such construction to highly energy-efficient standards, but transporting the panels is expensive and creates greenhouse gas emissions.
The city sought a local manufacturer, but an initial request for proposals yielded no viable candidates. Now the city and UWM professors are working with the Rocky Mountain Institute to convince a qualified company to open a site in Milwaukee to make energy-efficient panelized home components at commercial scale, for both the city and private customers.
“It’s such a great fit for Milwaukee,” said Lucas Toffoli, a principal in RMI’s carbon-free buildings program. “It’s a city that has a very strong blue-collar tradition, so the idea of bringing back some manufacturing, and leveling up the home-building capacity of the city feels very congruent with the spirit of Milwaukee.”
And panelized homes could be a cornerstone of affordable, energy-efficient housing nationwide if the sector was better organized and incentivized, RMI argues — a goal that Milwaukee could help further.
“Local action always drives a message in a way that federal action doesn’t,” Toffoli said. “It will be even more important under the incoming presidential administration and Congress. Having this project getting started at the local level in an important Midwestern city is a way to help ensure that progress continues at some level, even if it’s less of a priority at the federal level.”
Habitat for Humanity builds its own panels in its Milwaukee warehouse, and is working on an energy-efficient panelized design that it hope will yield the first net-zero affordable homes in 2025. Milwaukee has yet to select a developer for the DOE-funded program, but Milwaukee Habitat was a partner in the DOE grant and CEO Brian Sonderman said the organization is hopeful it will be chosen during an RFP process.
Single-family homes are typically “stick built” from the ground up, with 2×4 or similar boards forming a skeleton and then, one by one, walls. Panelized homes involve walls transported intact to the site.
Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity often uses a hybrid method wherein walls are “stick built” laying on their side in the Habitat warehouse, and then brought to the site where volunteers help assemble the new house.
There are various other methods of making panels that don’t involve lumber, UWM Associate Professor Alexander Timmer explained, and making these models highly energy efficient is still an emerging and decentralized field.
“It’s the chicken-or-the-egg problem in some sense,” Timmer said, since component manufacturers don’t know if there’s a market for energy-efficient panelized homes, and developers don’t build the homes because few component suppliers exist.
Wall panels can involve two sheets of plywood with insulation in between, or a steel interior surrounded by rigid insulation, among other models.
“With 2x4s, any small crew can build a home,” said Timmer. “With panelized, you need a factory, specialized tools, specialized knowledge. The hope is we are graduating architects into the market who know these technologies and techniques, and can design them to high energy efficiency standards. The city needs architects and builders who want to do these things and feel comfortable doing them.”
Toffoli touted the benefits of net-zero homes beyond the carbon emissions and utility bill savings.
“There’s less draftiness, greater comfort throughout the whole home,” said Toffoli. “In addition to making the heater run less to warm the air, there’s a big comfort benefit and acoustic benefit,” with little noise or pollutants filtering into the well-sealed home.
“In the middle of a severe Wisconsin winter storm, [if] power goes out for everyone, you have a home that can basically ride through harsh conditions passively much better,” Toffoli added.
Toffoli said examples in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts show panelized, highly energy-efficient homes can be built at costs not much greater than standard market panelized homes. A different design, including thinner studs and more insulation, means less heat or cold is transported from the outside in. Insulation and highly efficient windows cost more than market rate, but smaller appliances can be used because of the efficiency, helping to mitigate the cost increase.
He said mass production of net-zero panelized homes is much more efficient and cost-effective than stick-built energy-efficient homes.
“You don’t need to, every time, find a contractor who understands the proper sequence of control layers for a very high-performance wall,” Toffoli said. “It’s been done in part in a factory where they’re plugging and chugging on a design that’s been validated and repeated.”
The DOE grant includes $1 million for Milwaukee to incentivize construction of the panel factory, $40,000 each toward 25 homes, plus funds for administration and other costs. Shambarger said $40,000 per home will cover the construction cost difference between an affordable home that merely complies with building codes, and one that is net-zero – meeting federal standards with a highly efficient envelope, an electric heat pump and solar panels.
Shambarger noted that the city funding and business will not be enough to motivate a company to build a new factory in Milwaukee.
“Any company is going to have to have a customer base” beyond the city orders, Shambarger said. “We’ll have to make sure other housing developers like the product that companies have, that it’s cost effective. One of the things we learned the first time around is most of the developers really didn’t understand how to do net-zero energy. We want to make sure the product we select fits within Milwaukee neighborhoods, will work in our climate, has buy-in from the community.”
Local jobs would be created by the factory, which is slated to be in Century City, the neighborhood with the most vacant manufacturing space.
“Overall with the climate and equity plan, we are trying to create good-paying jobs that people want,” Shambarger said. “That often means the trades. One of the things attractive about building housing components in a factory is it offers steady year-round employment, rather than having to go on unemployment for the winter,” as many building tradespeople do.
Sonderman said that in the past, Milwaukee Habitat has put solar on some homes, but little else specifically to lower energy costs.
“Clearly if there was a really substantial market for developers who were interested and willing to do this work, the reality is Habitat wouldn’t be the first call,” he said. “It’s something new. One of the things we’re looking forward to is sharing with our Habitat network in the state and other developers and builders, so we build some confidence this can be done efficiently and cost-effectively.”
Net-zero homes are not only a way to fight climate change, but an environmental and economic justice issue in predominantly Black neighborhoods scarred by redlining and disinvestment, where the majority of residents are renters, Sonderman added.
“Even for the individuals who don’t live in that home but live in the neighborhood, it breathes hope, it says that our neighborhood is being invested in,” Sonderman said. “That matters deeply for the residents of Lindsay Heights, Harambee, Midtown and elsewhere. To take a project like this and see it come to fruition has tremendous ripple effect in a positive way.”
Several other Habitat chapters nationwide are building net-zero homes, including in Colorado, Illinois and Oregon.
Milwaukee Habitat is planning to build 34 homes in 2025 and up to 60 homes annually by 2028. Sonderman said they will make as many as possible net-zero.
“We’re not in a capacity to be the full-scale factory [Shambarger] was envisioning,” he said. “But we believe we’ll be able to supply the walls we need to build dozens and dozens of net-zero homes in the future.”
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Michigan economic development program that has invested $1 billion in five electric vehicle battery plants faces growing criticism for producing fewer jobs than promised, but backers urge patience. (Bridge)
ALSO: EV maker Rivian begins opening its rapid-charging network to drivers of all compatible vehicles, including at locations in Illinois and Michigan. (Automotive Dive)
OIL & GAS: An Ohio panel votes to open hundreds of acres of state parkland for hydraulic fracturing while selecting bids for drilling in a wildlife area. (Columbus Dispatch)
CARBON CAPTURE: The latest delays for a proposed North Dakota carbon capture project cap a year with few signs of progress for U.S. coal plant owners considering carbon capture retrofits. (Inside Climate News)
SOLAR: The U.S. solar industry is set to break installation records this year while meeting manufacturing milestones as the Inflation Reduction Act bolsters the industry. (Canary Media)
NUCLEAR: Some farmers in the agriculture-dominant region of southwestern Michigan are concerned about potential damage to land and water if a shuttered nuclear plant there is restarted. (Investigate Midwest)
WIND:
POLITICS: Labor unions UAW and SEIU announce their support for Michigan legislation that would block utilities from directly or indirectly making campaign contributions to candidates, parties or non-candidate committees. (Michigan Advance)
CLIMATE: Leaders of Illinois environmental and labor groups seek to find common ground on climate issues like mass transit: “We’re going to get more done if we’re aligned.” (Chicago Tribune, subscription)
GRID:
EFFICIENCY: An Illinois program trains students predominantly in Black and Brown communities for energy efficiency jobs. (Yale Climate Connections)
BIOGAS:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The fledgling electric vehicle battery recycling industry suffered in 2024 amid falling material prices, delayed construction projects, and reduced expectations for what recycling can deliver. (Canary Media)
ALSO:
EMISSIONS: An electrification advocacy group estimates replacing every American household’s fossil fuel furnaces, hot water heaters and clothes dryers with electric alternatives could deliver $40 billion in annual health benefits. (New York Times)
OFFSHORE WIND: An offshore wind company’s decision to put a planned wind farm on hold during the second Trump presidency is having ripple effects, endangering the development of a renewable energy hub in New York City. (Heatmap)
CARBON CAPTURE: The latest delays for a proposed North Dakota carbon capture project cap a year with few signs of progress for U.S. coal plant owners considering carbon capture retrofits. (Inside Climate News)
GRID:
OVERSIGHT: President-elect Trump’s promise to strengthen White House control over independent agencies could impact federal energy regulators’ nonpartisan oversight of gas and power markets. (E&E News)
OIL & GAS:
This article was originally posted by South Dakota Searchlight.
Massive data centers used for cloud computing and artificial intelligence are consuming enormous amounts of energy, and developers are eyeing South Dakota as a potential location, regulators say.
These “hyperscale data centers,” or “hyperscalers,” are designed to handle immense computing demands and are often operated by tech giants. The centers are characterized by their large size — often tens of thousands of square feet — and thousands of computer servers that require significant energy to operate.
Nick Phillips with Applied Digital in Texas, a developer of the centers, highlighted South Dakota’s appeal: a cold climate that cuts down on cooling a room full of hot servers, and abundant wind energy that’s considered one of the most cost-effective renewable energy sources, which can help keep operating costs down.
State regulators are not aware of any hyperscale data centers currently operating in South Dakota.
“There isn’t a requirement to report hyperscale data centers to the commission, so we don’t have a formal method to track that information,” said Leah Mohr with the Public Utilities Commission.
Commissioner Kristie Fiegen noted that the state’s largest proposed data center is a 50-megawatt facility in Leola.
“We don’t know what’s coming,” she said. “But the utilities are getting calls every week from people trying to see if they have the megawatts available.”
The commission recently hosted a meeting in Pierre with representatives from regional utilities, regional power grid associations and data centers. The goal was to understand the emerging demands and facilitate an information exchange.
Bob Sahr, a former public utilities commissioner and current CEO of East River Electric Cooperative in Madison, emphasized the scale of energy needed.
“We’re talking loads that eclipse some of the largest cities in South Dakota,” he said.
A single data center campus can require anywhere from 300 to 500 megawatts of electricity to operate. One megawatt can power hundreds of homes. By one estimate, there are over 1,000 hyperscalers worldwide, with the U.S. hosting just over half of them.
Ryan Long, president of Xcel Energy, headquartered in Minneapolis, illustrated the extreme nature of the demand.
“We now have, I would say, north of seven gigawatts of requests across the Xcel Energy footprint for data centers to locate in one of our eight states,” he said. “And I’ll be very frank that there’s no way that we’re going to be able to serve all of that in a reasonable amount of time.”
Protecting existing customers from potential costs or energy shortages is another shared concern. Utility representatives emphasized the need for coal and natural gas to maintain a reliable “base load” when renewable sources like wind and solar are unavailable. Arick Sears of Iowa-based MidAmerican Energy underscored the point, noting that costs for each data center should depend on how much energy it consumes.
“We need to ensure that large-scale energy users are paying their fair share,” he said.
Utilities also flagged the risk of “stranded costs,” referring to a data center ceasing operations, leaving a utility with added infrastructure to meet a demand that no longer exists. They said financial safeguards will need to be written into power agreements with hyperscalers.
Speed of deployment is another pressing issue. Representatives from Montana-Dakota Utilities, headquartered in North Dakota, and NorthWestern Energy, headquartered in Sioux Falls, noted that some facilities expect to be operational within months of making a deal, straining infrastructure, planning and resources.
Grid managers Brian Tulloh of Indiana-based Midcontinent Independent System Operator and Lanny Nickell of Arkansas-based Southwest Power Pool echoed those concerns. They warned that data center growth is outpacing the grid’s ability to meet demand and cautioned against decommissioning coal power plants too quickly. Setting aside how much it would cost to produce the required energy, Tulloh estimated that MISO needs $30 billion in electric transmission infrastructure to support the demand from hyperscalers.
“The grid wasn’t designed for that,” Public Utilities Commissioner Chris Nelson told South Dakota Searchlight after the meeting.
Nelson was glad to hear the data centers will include backup generators, similar to hospitals, for power outages or when homes need prioritization. He said some even aim to have huge batteries to power the plant until the generators get going. They would consume massive amounts of diesel and natural gas until the outage is over.
Nelson said all of this makes modern nuclear energy facilities more attractive. He said few alternative “base load” options remain, and the public has little appetite for ramping up coal power.
NorthWestern Energy is exploring the possibility of constructing a small nuclear power plant in South Dakota, with an estimated cost of $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion for a 320-megawatt facility. The plant would be the first in the state since a test facility near Sioux Falls in the 1960s.
The company is conducting a study, partially funded by the Department of Energy. Details about the study and potential plant sites remain confidential.
Additionally, South Dakota’s Legislature has shown interest in nuclear energy, passing a resolution for further study on the topic that led to the publication of an issue memorandum by the Legislative Research Council.
SOLAR: Cities in Michigan and Wisconsin are contracting with large utilities to provide solar power after encountering financial and logistical challenges with building rooftop solar installations. (Energy News Network)
ALSO:
GRID:
OIL & GAS: Nearly all of the 600 public comments sent to Ohio regulators in response to proposals to open a state park and two wildlife preservation areas to hydraulic fracturing oppose the plans. (Cleveland.com)
COAL: The Sierra Club criticizes Wisconsin utilities’ plan to keep open a coal plant for three years longer than previously planned, saying that it delays the clean energy transition and exposes residents to more harmful pollutants. (Wisconsin Examiner)
TRANSPORTATION: A majority of the recipients of a new Minnesota electric bike tax rebate went to residents making more than $100,000 a year while less than 40% of the rebates went to low-income residents. (Minnesota Reformer)
BATTERIES: A developer breaks ground on a $110 million mixed-use housing and hotel project that would connect to a nearby $7.5 billion central Indiana battery manufacturing plant. (Indianapolis Business Journal, subscription)
POLITICS: Establishing a fee for Minneapolis’ largest carbon emitters was one of multiple policies that the city’s mayor unsuccessfully attempted to veto in a disagreement with the more left-leaning city council. (MPR News)
COMMENTARY:
WIND: The federal Bureau of Land Management approves a downscaled version of the proposed Lava Ridge wind facility in southern Idaho amid lawmakers’ and advocates’ concerns about its impact to rural communities and a World War II Japanese American incarceration site. (Associated Press)
SOLAR:
OIL & GAS:
OVERSIGHT: Analysts say the outcome of a Utah oil-hauling railway case before the U.S. Supreme Court this week could curtail a landmark federal environmental law. (Inside Climate News)
ELECTRIFICATION:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: California prepares to launch its electric bicycle incentive program for lower-income residents, but some advocates say there should be more than 1,500 vouchers available. (Electrek)
TRANSPORTATION: Colorado’s largest public transit agency breaks ground on bus rapid transit projects in the Denver area as a lower-cost alternative to new commuter or light rail lines. (Colorado Sun)
GRID: NV Energy proposes a rate increase to pay for its Greenlink West and North transmission projects, saying the projected construction cost has doubled to more than $4.2 billion. (Nevada Independent)
CLEAN ENERGY: New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham says an influx of federal funding and private investments are making the state a clean energy generation and manufacturing powerhouse. (Albuquerque Journal)
COAL: Residents of the Black Mesa area on the Navajo Nation create a nonprofit aimed at bringing a just transition to communities in the historic coal mining region. (Arizona Republic)
UTILITIES: Avangrid asks the New Mexico Supreme Court to vacate regulators’ order blocking its proposed merger with the state’s largest utility. (Santa Fe New Mexican)
COMMENTARY: A Nevada columnist urges lawmakers to consider data centers’ rapid growth in the state and address their high energy and water consumption. (Nevada Independent)
NATURAL GAS: Officials in a small Pennsylvania city announce plans to convert a shuttered coal-burning power plant to a natural gas-fired station and double its capacity, making it the largest gas-burning plant in the country. (Power)
ALSO: A Maine utility has completed a 14-year initiative replacing more than 125 miles of outdated and potentially unsafe gas pipes, some first installed as long as 110 years ago. (Portland Press Herald, subscription)
RENEWABLES: Mass Audubon celebrates the new state climate law’s emphasis on sustainable siting for renewable energy projects, but in western Massachusetts, some groups are concerned the new rules will allow the development of large-scale solar and battery projects against the will of local residents. (Greenfield Recorder)
NUCLEAR: Some experts are skeptical that restarting the Three Mile Island nuclear plant and pursuing other nuclear power projects will actually be a meaningful solution for the energy needs of artificial intelligence. (NPR)
TRANSMISSION: Construction is roughly halfway complete on a $6 billion transmission line intended to bring hydropower from Quebec down to New York City. (Times Union)
GRID:
COAL: Hundreds of abandoned coal mines that have hollowed out the ground in parts of western Pennsylvania raise renewed safety concerns after a four-day search for a woman who fell into a sinkhole last week. (TribLive)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
COMMENTARY: Maine’s struggles with malfunctioning and unsafe electric school buses from one company have sowed “disillusionment and doubt” that could harm the state’s ability to transition about from fossil fuel vehicles, says an editorial board. (Portland Press Herald, subscription)
.svg)
