NOTE TO READERS: Southeast Energy News is taking a break for Labor Day. The email digest will return on Tuesday, September 6.
WIND: One of the biggest transfers of wind energy throughout the U.S. could hinge on the TVA’s decision by year’s end to buy electricity generated by wind turbines in Oklahoma and Texas via a proposed transmission line. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
SOLAR:
• A hearing examiner at Virginia’s State Corporation Commission affirms that existing law gives consumers the right to use third-party financing for rooftop solar systems. (The Energy Fix blog)
• North Carolina-based solar developer Pine Gate Renewables receives $20 million in new project financing from a private equity firm. (SeeNews)
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NUCLEAR:
• The fire that shut down the TVA’s new Watts Bar 2 reactor in Tennessee this week forces the shutdown of the other reactor there. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
• A former Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner says some reactors approaching the end of their useful lives should be retired in lieu of new plants. (Utility Dive / Nature)
UTILITIES:
• A judge rules the board of Duke Energy must face a shareholder lawsuit over its abrupt 2012 firing of then-chief executive William Johnson. (Reuters)
• Critics of Florida Power & Light’s $1.3 billion rate hike request pin hopes on their testimony, but not that of an expert witness whose testimony was withdrawn. (POLITICO Florida)
• Alabama Power and Duke Energy are lauded for helping create jobs and growing their states’ economies with programs including energy efficiency and renewable energy. (Birmingham Business Journal, Charlotte Business Journal)
NATURAL GAS: The latest federal summary of state energy data says the 39 percent of Virginia’s net electricity generation in 2015 from natural gas surpassed generation of its four nuclear reactors for the first time. (Agri-Pulse)
COAL:
• Crews end their unsuccessful search for a missing miner in West Virginia. (Associated Press / Bluefield Daily Telegraph)
• Groups sue the operator of an abandoned mine, claiming it is leaching waste and other pollutants into Alabama’s Black Warrior River. (Alabama Media Group)
• West Virginia has lost 53% of its coal jobs since late 2011, according to the latest tally by Standard & Poors. (Kentucky Forward)
PIPELINES: A judge directs the developers of the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline in Virginia to try again to survey land where access has been denied. (Roanoke Times)
EFFICIENCY: Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe joins with Dominion Virginia Power touting home energy efficiency upgrades. (The Progress-Index)
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ETHICS: The Alabama Ethics Commission rejects a request by a state regulator to lease land he owns to Alabama Power for a solar project. (Alabama Media Group)
COMMENTARY:
• The utility-backed solar Amendment 1 on Florida’s November 8 ballot would create additional barriers to market development. (Southern Alliance for Clean Energy)
• Is PURPA really driving solar in North Carolina? (Southern Alliance for Clean Energy)