SOLAR: Three North Carolina solar companies negotiate a settlement with Duke Energy to continue crediting residential solar customers for unused power at a “bridge rate” for up to 15 years, though the deal still must be approved by state regulators. (Winston-Salem Journal)

ALSO:
• Georgia regulators say they’re getting “lit up” by complaints from angry customers who purchased rooftop solar arrays only to find they don’t qualify for net-metering payments. (WAGA)
• Entergy announces the completion of a 100 MW solar farm in Mississippi that’s now the state’s largest renewable energy plant. (Mississippi Today)
• A Texas solar company installs a 15 MW solar system to power 16 apartment communities near Dallas. (Spectrum News)
• Texas city officials announce plans for a 5 MW solar plant at El Paso International Airport to be built in partnership with a local utility. (KTSM)

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HYDROGEN: Is hydrogen overhyped? A Virginia clean energy advocate doesn’t think so, and says the fuel could be a critical piece of the puzzle for reducing emissions. (Energy News Network)

CLIMATE:
• The U.S. Supreme Court will let the Biden administration raise the cost estimate for the societal impact of greenhouse gases that federal agencies can consider when drafting new regulations, overruling a Louisiana judge’s decision to block changes in the formula. (New York Times, Reuters)
• Florida prepares to develop a first-ever plan to address flooding and sea level rise, but environmental groups complain state officials are overlooking climate change as the root cause of the problems. (WMFE)
• Austin, Texas’ municipal utility announces a pilot project to store excess water in aquifers that can be tapped during times of drought. (Austin Monitor)

UTILITIES: The board that oversees Nashville, Tennessee’s municipal utility releases an opinion calling for the Tennessee Valley Authority to invest in renewable energy and drop plans to replace a coal-fired plant scheduled for retirement with natural gas. (WPLN)

PIPELINES: Federal pipeline regulators say they’ll take steps to strengthen safety measures around carbon dioxide pipelines after a 2020 leak in Mississippi resulted in evacuations and caused almost 50 people to seek medical attention. (Reuters)

STORAGE:
• Tesla looks to recruit owners of its Powerwall batteries to help convince Texas’ grid manager to reverse a policy that doesn’t currently allow batteries to send power to the grid. (CNET)
• Tesla delivers four Megapack batteries to a Texas cryptomining center that will be powered by a 3.8 MW solar farm and battery storage. (Electrek)

GRID:
• Louisiana regulators draft a policy that would require Entergy and other utilities to cover 20% of storm repairs instead of passing the entire cost along to ratepayers. (New Orleans City Business)
• Extreme, climate change-driven weather produces high temperatures and storms in the Southeast that threaten the Southeast’s power grid far more than the accompanying shift toward renewables. (Canary Media)

EFFICIENCY: Dominion Energy partners with a nonprofit community action agency on a pilot program to make homes in coastal Virginia more energy efficient. (WTKR)

NUCLEAR: A Virginia official recommends state regulators approve relicensing Dominion Energy’s two existing nuclear plants because they “may become more important to the transmission system” as the state moves to decarbonize its power grid by 2050. (Virginia Mercury)

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BIOGAS: A Florida dairy farm uses an anaerobic digester to process methane from cow manure into gas that’s turned into energy and sent back into the power grid. (WUFT)

FUELS:
• A Texas fuel-delivery firm secures $125 million to promote a shift to renewable and alternative fuels, and expand mobile, on-demand electric vehicle charging. (Dallas Innovates)
• Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp extends a state gas tax suspension through mid-July to cover the Memorial Day and July 4 holidays. (Georgia Recorder)

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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.