STORAGE: A federal document reveals a company is considering Chattanooga, Tennessee, for a $1 billion battery factory. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

SOLAR:
• A solar panel manufacturer inches closer to receiving local government approval to move a factory into a South Carolina facility. (WCNC)
• After approving six solar projects, a Virginia county board considers placing a cap on land used for solar generation. (Mecklenburg Sun)
• A Kentucky group sues a county government after it rezones roughly 1,000 acres for an industrial solar project. (News-Enterprise)
• A developer seeks a permit to build 1.6 MW and 3.5 MW solar facilities in Texas. (Valley Morning Star)
• More Oklahoma homeowners eye solar installations after energy prices rise 20% over the last two years. (KWTV)
• An Oklahoma HVAC company installs a 240 kW solar array at its headquarters as it pursues net-zero goals. (news release)

PIPELINES: Mountain Valley Pipeline officials say they expect completion by year’s end after courts dismiss the last of the legal challenges that have delayed it for years and construction resumes. (Virginia Mercury)

OIL & GAS: Environmentalists and Tennessee landowners protest the Tennessee Valley Authority’s plans to build new natural gas-fired power plants and pipelines to replace the last of the utility’s coal-fired plants. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• An auto parts supplier plans a $114 million expansion in Alabama to support its production of electric vehicle parts. (Associated Press)
• Texas’ new electric vehicle registration fees place the state in the company of 33 other states that target EVs because they don’t contribute to gas tax revenue. (Forbes)

GRID:
• Texas energy prices averaged more than $3,200/MWh for several hours one day last week amid scorching temperatures and high power demand. (S&P Global, Associated Press)
• A Virginia county eyes the site of a now-demolished coal-fired plant that still has an electric substation to provide the significant power needs of a proposed data center complex. (Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star)

BUILDINGS: Energy efficiency advocates worry North Carolina lawmakers’ action to freeze building code updates could leave new homes without necessary energy efficiency measures as climate change continues to affect storms and weather. (WRAL)

CLIMATE:
• A heat wave and drought push farmers in Texas and elsewhere to consider expensive irrigation investments. (Associated Press)
• A new study finds North Carolina’s wild turkeys aren’t adapting their breeding patterns to temperature and precipitation changes resulting from climate change, which could affect their populations. (Wilmington StarNews)

COMMENTARY:
• Federal safeguards to limit methane emissions and slow climate change benefit Texas’ outdoor recreation economy, writes the owner of an Austin bike shop. (Austin Chronicle)
• Florida’s governor should establish an energy task force to consider private development of more nuclear power and an oil refinery to support more growth, writes a longtime oil official. (Daytona Beach News-Journal)

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Mason has worked as a journalist since 2001, covering Appalachian communities and the issues that affect them. He compiles the Southeast Energy News digest. Mason previously worked as a wildlife biologist before moving into journalism by freelancing at Coast Weekly in Monterey, California, before taking an internship in 2001 at High Country News. He wrote for the Enterprise Mountaineer in western North Carolina and the Roanoke Times in western Virginia before going freelance in 2012. His work has appeared in Southerly, Daily Yonder, Mother Jones, Huffington Post, WVPB’s Inside Appalachia and elsewhere. Mason was born and raised in Clifton Forge, Virginia, and now lives with his family and a small herd of goats in Floyd County, Virginia.