SOLAR: A Minneapolis-area planning agency is offering reduced costs for solar installations to rental property owners that are willing to create additional affordable housing units. (Energy News Network)
ALSO:
• A citizens group wants county officials to intervene and oppose plans for a 1,200-acre solar project in southwestern Ohio. (Dayton Daily News)
• Detroit business owners see a spike in interest for small-scale solar projects during the pandemic. (Model D Media)
• A proposed 2 MW solar project at a University of Wisconsin campus is unlikely to have adverse environmental impacts, an analysis finds. (Telegraph Herald)
• A growing number of Indiana utilities offer renewables to customers who want to offset part of their electricity use with clean energy. (Indianapolis Star)
• Local officials are set to vote on approving a 1 MW solar project at a decommissioned air force base in eastern Illinois. (News-Gazette)
• Southwest Indiana is poised to see multiple large solar projects in the coming years. (Inside Indiana Business)
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UTILITIES: A committee looking into Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s dealings with ComEd finds no wrongdoing following a split vote along party lines. (Chicago Sun-Times)
RENEWABLES:
• A nonprofit initiative in Columbus, Ohio, is designed to help corporations and industrial utility customers decarbonize by offering renewable energy contracts. (Smart Cities Dive)
• Renewable energy companies are stepping up efforts to reduce the environmental impacts associated with manufacturing solar panels and disposing of wind turbines. (Utility Dive)
OIL & GAS:
• Oil companies are increasingly relying on rapid COVID-19 tests to determine if Bakken oil field workers have contracted the virus. (Bismarck Tribune)
• North Dakota oil production remained essentially flat in October and likely won’t rebound to pre-pandemic levels until later next year or 2022, state officials say. (Star Tribune)
TRANSMISSION: Invenergy renews its push to build support for the Grain Belt Express transmission project from Kansas to Indiana as a way for grid operators to save costs. (RTO Insider, subscription)
NUCLEAR: A University of Wisconsin researcher says nuclear power will play a key role in Wisconsin’s low-carbon future even though there isn’t demand for new reactors there. (WisBusiness.com)
PIPELINES:
• Protests continue along the route of the Line 3 replacement project in northern Minnesota as construction moves forward. (MPR News)
• County officials in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula adopt a resolution in support of Enbridge’s plan to build a tunnel for the Line 5 pipeline. (Iron Mountain Daily News)
COMMENTARY:
• An Ohio State University professor says future COVID-19 stimulus packages should support renewable energy and help communities that have been reliant on fossil fuels. (Columbus Dispatch)
• A Peoria, Illinois arts center installs a solar project using Clean Air Act settlement funds involving the E.D. Edwards coal plant. (Natural Resources Defense Council)