CARBON CAPTURE: The U.S. Energy Department awards $600 million each to Louisiana and Texas direct air carbon capture projects, the first recipients of $3.5 billion in federal incentives. (Associated Press)
GRID:
• The Biden administration proposes a new rule that would put the Energy Department in charge of transmission permitting, eliminating the need to work with additional federal agencies. (E&E News)
• Grid operators PJM and MISO say the U.S. EPA’s new power plant emissions standards may overestimate how quickly hydrogen, carbon capture, and other technologies can scale up, raising the potential for “significant power shortages.”(Utility Dive)
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CLEAN ENERGY:
• Setback ordinances are restricting wind and solar development in parts of the country, but even if they were applied nationwide there would still be enough land to build all the renewable energy resources needed, a federal study finds. (Utility Dive)
• A proposed federal rule would boost tax credits for solar and wind projects in low-income areas by as much as 20%. (The Hill)
CLIMATE:
• The death toll reaches 55 after firefighters douse wildfires in Maui; Hawaii’s governor says it will “without a doubt” cost billions of dollars to rebuild. (Washington Post)
• Federal forecasters increase the likelihood that this year’s Atlantic hurricane season will see “an above-normal level of activity.” (Inside Climate News)
• The human toll from record-breaking heat in Florida is difficult to track because hospitals don’t release their counts of heat hospitalizations and deaths, and official records often are drawn narrowly. (Miami Herald)
• California works with fossil fuel-financing banks to fund state climate change fighting initiatives. (Capital & Main)
SOLAR:
• Cooperation between community solar developers and utilities can make arrays more affordable and reliable and expand access to more customers, analysts say. (Utility Dive)
• Solar owners in Washington, D.C. now need to manually track generation stats, the local utility announces; the change will likely eliminate owners’ power bill savings. (DCist)
ELECTRIFICATION:
• The U.S. Energy Department devotes $46 million to projects developing low-cost building electrification and weatherization solutions. (Utility Dive)
• Installers and early adopters of electric heat pumps in northern Minnesota are showing that the technology, paired with weatherization upgrades, can be effective even in cold weather climates. (Energy News Network)
• Colorado’s real estate industry pushes back against proposed state rules requiring efficiency upgrades for large residential and commercial buildings. (Denver Gazette)
BATTERIES: A Wisconsin startup is developing a battery that could store renewable energy longer by using organic salts that are dissolved in a water solution and pumped through the device. (State Journal)
WIND: An amateur inventor in San Antonio, Texas, claims he’s solved the problem of excess voltage generation to make small, consumer-scale wind turbines feasible. (Texas Monthly)
TRANSPORTATION: Hydrogen-powered semi trucks look to prove themselves against traditional diesel vehicles and electric alternatives. (Axios)
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