SOLAR: A solar workgroup in southwest Virginia retools its approach, hopeful that Virginia’s new clean energy law will help overcome setbacks — including the pandemic — for solar projects in the region. (Energy News Network)
ALSO:
• Florida Power & Light begins operations at four 74.5 MW solar projects as part of its plan to install 30 million solar panels by 2030. (Florida Politics)
• A fossil fuel developer joins forces with three solar companies to develop a 350 MW solar project in Texas. (PV Magazine)
• A Texas solar company says one employee has tested positive for COVID-19 and nearly 500 have been tested. (KTXS)
• A lengthy permitting process for a massive solar project in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, pushed financing talks into the middle of the pandemic, but developers say the project will go on. (Greentech Media)
• The Southern Oak Solar Energy Center in Mitchell County, Georgia, began commercial operations during the first quarter of this year. (Solar Industry)
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RENEWABLES:
• The city of Houston commits to buying 100% renewable energy from a utility, a plan that is expected to save it $65 million over seven years. (CleanTechnica)
• Dominion Energy issues a request for proposals for up to 1,000 MW of solar and wind projects and up to 250 MW of energy storage in Virginia. (reNews)
WIND: The U.S. wind industry installed 1,821 MW of new wind power capacity in the first quarter — most of it in Texas — but an industry group says the pandemic puts those projects at risk. (S&P Global)
PIPELINES:
• The Sierra Club sues the Army Corps of Engineers over the Permian Highway Pipeline in Texas, saying environmental reviews were insufficient and should not have been approved. (Kallanish Energy)
• Land movement in a construction area shifted an underground section of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, according to a report filed by West Virginia environmental regulators. (Roanoke Times)
OIL & GAS:
• A Louisiana engineer created a containment system to capture millions of gallons of oil from one of the largest and longest-running oil spills in U.S. history. (NOLA.com)
• Exxon Mobil says it lost $610 million during the first quarter of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and oil market collapse. (Houston Chronicle)
COAL ASH: North Carolina environmental regulators release details for plans to excavate coal ash at three of Duke Energy’s coal-fired power plants. (Cornelius Today)
COMMENTARY:
• Offshore wind could be the answer to helping Louisiana transition from an oil and gas economy, a journalist writes. (NOLA.com)
• Texas should cap oil and gas production to help restore the free market from its crash during the pandemic, says the director of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. (Houston Chronicle)
• South Carolina needs to prevent offshore drilling and advance clean energy to improve the lives of residents, a state representative writes. (The State)