UTILITIES: The Omaha Public Power District board unanimously approves the utility’s $2 billion plan to nearly double generating capacity over the next decade, mostly with renewables, to meet anticipated demand from industrial customers. (World-Herald)
ALSO:
• An Ohio city approves an agreement to source electricity from a FirstEnergy spinoff because of its cheapest rates for renewable and fossil fuel electricity, though one official expressed concerns about the company’s ties to FirstEnergy. (Journal-News)
• Michigan’s attorney general says DTE Energy’s $622 million rate increase request for pilot programs and higher profit margins is nearly twice as much as the utility actually needs. (MLive)
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CLIMATE: The new climate director of Minnesota’s Pollution Control Agency discusses how government can help mobilize the state to prepare for climate change. (Energy News Network)
EMISSIONS: Environmentalists and economists criticize a Dominion Energy subsidiary’s plan to offer its Ohio natural gas customers carbon offsets, saying they wouldn’t meaningfully reduce emissions. (Cleveland.com)
NUCLEAR: Xcel Energy will build a concrete barrier to keep groundwater from the Mississippi River near a Minnesota nuclear plant that leaked contaminated water last year. (MPR)
WIND:
• A Nebraska county admits in court filings that a local board doesn’t have the authority to enact zoning ordinances and can’t retroactively apply noise limits to a 99-turbine wind project. (News Channel Nebraska)
• North Dakota regulators approve a Minnesota utility’s plan to repower a 49.5 MW wind farm, a move that will add more than 3 MW of capacity. (Prairie Public Broadcasting)
SOLAR:
• More townships in northeastern Ohio seek to ban commercial solar projects as permitted under a recent state law. (WKBN)
• A northern Illinois county approves zoning changes that will permit the construction of six solar projects. (Northwest Herald)
STORAGE: Michigan State University researchers study advancements in redox flow batteries that would support more efficient storage of wind and solar generation. (MSU Today)
BIOFUELS: A Minnesota agency earlier this year fined an ethanol plant $250,000 for air quality and industrial wastewater and stormwater violations. (West Central Tribune)
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FINANCE: A central Michigan city looks to become the next in the state to adopt property assessed clean energy financing to support clean energy upgrades in historic buildings. (Livingston Daily)
COMMENTARY: Ohio’s largest energy aggregator responds to criticism, saying that it supports clean energy both in advocacy at the statehouse and by backing renewable energy developments. (Ohio Capital Journal)
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