CARBON: North Carolina’s Catawba College becomes the first campus in the Southeast and the 13th in the country to achieve a net-zero carbon footprint. (Energy News Network)
GRID: A Texas energy company warns it could cancel plans to build three natural gas-fired power plants totalling 1,500 MW if state lawmakers move forward with a plan to build state-sponsored plants instead of paying generators directly. (Houston Chronicle)
SOLAR:
• A company submits plans to build a 102 MW solar farm in southern Virginia. (South Boston News & Record)
• A Virginia county receives its second, half-million-dollar payment from a company preparing to build a 130 MW solar farm. (Kenbridge Victoria Dispatch)
• Virginia officials award a solar farm only the second “Pollinator-Smart” certification in the program’s three years. (Virginia Mercury)
• An energy developer proposes a 25 MW solar farm in a North Carolina county now home to 14 solar projects. (WHQR)
• A 92-acre Virginia property that’s repeatedly submitted and withdrawn plans for a solar farm in recent years again sees a delay in its rezoning request due to issues with its application. (Daily Progress)
WIND: Maritime companies collaborate on the construction of a “floatel” to transport workers and equipment during construction of Dominion Energy’s offshore wind farm near Virginia. (Virginia Business)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• A Georgia resident sues electric vehicle maker Rivian and two contractors for allegedly polluting a nearby creek with runoff from the construction site of its future Georgia factory. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, subscription; Investing)
• Texas lawmakers pass a bill to impose a $400 fee for the registration of a new electric vehicle and $200 each year to renew. (KTBC)
• A renewables company partners with BP’s electric vehicle charging division to design and build a “solar canopy” to charge a Texas city’s electric bus fleet. (CleanTechnica)
• A consultant cites low operating costs in Chattanooga, Tennessee, as a key factor in naming it one of the top three metro areas to attract new electric vehicle equipment manufacturing and jobs. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
COAL: West Virginia advocacy groups accuse the state’s lead regulator of improperly meeting with one of the utilities that’s asked for a rate hike to evaluate and potentially save from shutdown a coal-fired power plant. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
UTILITIES:
• In what opponents describe as a “hostile” state takeover, Florida Republicans advance legislation to put a governor-appointed board in charge of Gainesville’s municipal utility, which has been a leader in renewable energy. (Gainesville Sun)
• A power company informs Oklahoma regulators it’s making progress on six planned wind and solar projects totaling 995 MW in Texas and Kansas that would provide its Oklahoma customers with more renewable energy. (Journal Record)
NUCLEAR:
• Dominion Energy considers adding small modular nuclear reactors to its power mix in Virginia. (WVTF)
• Tennessee experts will discuss the ethics of nuclear power as a way to address climate change in a community long used for nuclear research. (Oak Ridger)
CLIMATE: Georgia farmers and researchers experiment with new crop varieties and management practices in response to climate change. (Athens Banner-Herald)
COMMENTARY: An energy analyst blames “intra-party turf battles among the state’s GOP leadership” for the Texas’ legislature’s failure so far to pass bills reforming its power grid and energy market. (Forbes)
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