BUILDINGS: The U.S. Energy Department announces $240 million to help state and local governments adopt more efficient building codes. (Utility Dive)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Oakland, California’s school district is the first major district in the U.S. to fully adopt electric school buses, which can send power back to the grid during high demand. (Grist)

SOLAR:

• The Biden administration finalizes its Western solar plan aimed at expediting development on 31 million acres of federal land in 11 states. (Reuters)
• A startup says its technology can help solve a key challenge preventing solar at multi-family projects by sending energy from a single system with one inverter to individual housing units. (Energy News Network)

CLEAN ENERGY: Along with the addition of 15 GW of solar, battery and wind over the last year, Texas added 6.6% more clean energy jobs to rank second in the U.S. after Idaho. (Houston Chronicle)

GRID: 

• The North American Electric Reliability Corp. drafts an analysis of power transfer capacity between regional transmission areas. (Utility Dive)
• A network of smart energy devices in New England helped shave hundreds of megawatts off peak demand on a single day this summer, highlighting the usefulness of virtual power plants. (WBUR)

POLITICS: Maryland’s election for a U.S. Senate seat could make or break federal climate action by stripping Democrats of their current majority. (Inside Climate News)

OVERSIGHT: Texas prepares to launch a new set of business courts overseen by a panel of judges who have previously represented oil and gas companies, raising questions about whether the new courts lean too far toward fossil fuel favoritism. (The Lever)

COMMENTARY: A columnist details how increasingly cheap and widely available solar power will make once-far-fetched applications possible. (New York Times)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The Biden administration announces $521 million in grants for electric vehicle charging, and says the number of publicly available chargers has doubled since 2021. (Utility Dive)

GRID: 

• A flood of new solar and battery capacity have kept Texas’ independent state power grid afloat as it sets a new record for peak demand, experts say, though state lawmakers also credit a new conservation alert system. (Canary Media, KIII)
• Renewable energy groups issue a report calling for interconnection reforms ahead of a two-day FERC workshop next month. (Utility Dive)
• Georgia Power plans to install 500 MW of battery energy storage at four locations around the state to help meet a projected spike in power demand. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

OIL & GAS: 

• A coalition of 23 state attorneys general petitions the Supreme Court to block EPA rules requiring oil and gas wells to control leaks of methane, a significant contributor to global warming. (The Hill)
• The U.S. Interior Department finalizes prohibitions on new mining, drilling and other development on 28 million acres of federal land in Alaska, reversing a Trump-era policy. (Alaska Beacon)
• As oil exports reach record levels, four U.S. senators and 18 Congress members call for a pause on the permitting of liquified natural gas export projects and want to revisit regulators’ decision to approve a terminal 30 miles off the Texas coast. (Houston Chronicle)

UTILITIES: Illinois ratepayers have paid an extra $1.8 billion since 2015 by choosing alternative energy suppliers over traditional utilities like ComEd and Ameren, according to a consumer advocate’s analysis. (Daily Herald)

SOLAR: Opponents of a proposed 800 MW Ohio solar project may turn to the state Supreme Court to block the project after regulators denied repeated challenges. (WCMH)

COMMENTARY: 

• A business writer says automakers’ whiplash on electric vehicles repeats a familiar pattern when legacy companies overreact to startups willing to endure heavy initial losses. (Washington Post)
• In New Jersey, the Garden State Institute’s president describes the financial and planning lessons that the state’s offshore wind projects can learn from the recent Nantucket turbine failure. (Daily Record)

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GEOTHERMAL: 

• Facebook parent company Meta strikes a deal with a geothermal startup to develop up to 150 MW of generation to power its data centers. (New York Times)
• Houston startups say they’ve created a geothermal energy storage system that uses fracking-like technology to store pressurized water deep in the ground, then release it to power a turbine. (Inside Climate News)

OIL & GAS: Northeast states are leading the way in pursuing compensation from oil companies for economic damages from climate change. (Stateline)

GRID: 

• Regional transmission experts say the buildup of energy-intensive data centers poses an “emerging risk” to grid reliability in the West. (OPB)
• Texas’ grid operator sees an unofficial record for power demand but experts say it seems more stable than last year due to the addition of wind, solar, battery storage and a small amount of gas. (Houston Chronicle)
• Federal data shows electricity generation from fossil fuels spiked during heat waves in New England this summer, with natural gas providing 61% of capacity on June 22. (Energy Information Administration)
• Southwest Power Pool seeks federal approval to delay its interconnection queue study process and to stop accepting new projects amid a growing number of connection and withdrawal requests. (Utility Dive)

SOLAR:

• The leader of a “grassroots” anti-solar energy group admits to Ohio regulators that a well-connected natural gas executive is among its largest financial supporters. (Energy News Network)
• A developer secures $550 million in financing and breaks ground on its 140 MW Rosamond South solar-plus-storage project in Kern County, California. (Solar Power World)

CLIMATE: A study finds an increase in heat-related deaths between 2018 and 2023, with the vast majority of fatalities occurring in California, Arizona, Nevada and Texas. (Los Angeles Times)

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GRID:

• Cleantech experts say home power management systems are set to become essential as homeowners switch to electric appliances and vehicles, as well as add at-home power generation. (Bloomberg)
• A U.S. Energy Department advisory board proposes establishing a data center to study how AI affects power demand. (Axios)

WIND:

• Anti-wind protesters claim without evidence that the broken Vineyard turbine blade added to “the plight of the right whale,” an endangered species most at risk from vessel strikes and climate change. (Nantucket Current, Energy News Network archive)
• A Maine agency will study the viability of small-scale wind turbines, which could help supplement low production from solar panels in winter. (Portland Press Herald)
• Oregon researchers aim to reduce wind facility-related bird fatalities by painting turbine blades black. (OPB)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Kentucky has attracted more than $11.5 billion in electric vehicle-related investments since 2020, but lagging vehicle sales and a partisan split over the industry create uncertainty about its future. (Louisville Courier-Journal)

COAL:

• The operators of the Colstrip coal plant in Montana urge the U.S. Supreme Court to block implementation of new U.S. EPA emissions standards, saying the cost of complying with the rule would force the facility’s closure. (Montana Free Press)
• New Mexico advocates hail the demolition of the shuttered San Juan coal plant’s smokestacks as a symbol of the energy transition while the facility’s former workers mourn lost jobs. (NM Political Report, Tri-City Record)

PIPELINES: Tribal leaders in northern Wisconsin continue their fight to shut down the Line 5 pipeline in the “Everglades of the North,” where they fear a spill would decimate areas for wild rice and fishing. (Inside Climate News)

SOLAR: A Swiss firm cancels plans to establish a solar cell manufacturing plant in Colorado, saying market distortions have rendered the project financially unviable. (Reuters)

EMISSIONS: North Carolina’s ratepayer advocate, Walmart, and other critics of Duke Energy’s initial decarbonization plan relent and endorse a settlement that includes construction of 9 GW of new natural gas plants and more solar. (Energy News Network)

COMMENTARY: A Harris campaign adviser calls for a “Clean Energy Marshall Plan” that would finance foreign investments in renewables and the creation of international clean energy supply chains and trade agreements. (Foreign Affairs)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES: 

• Experts say solid state batteries have the potential to transform the auto sector by giving electric vehicles hundreds of miles more of range per charge. (Inside Climate News)
• A company opens a $400 million central Ohio plant for recycling lithium-ion batteries, the first of its kind to open with support from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure law. (Canary Media)
• States and utilities are advancing dozens of rebates and incentives for electric vehicle purchases, while also moving forward with changing electricity rates for EV owners and building chargers. (PV Magazine)

EFFICIENCY: The U.S. Energy Department announces $53.6 million to expand weatherization efforts and clean energy installations benefitting low-income communities in 13 states and the Virgin Islands. (Utility Dive)

WIND: New Mexico is emerging as a wind energy powerhouse, trailing only Wyoming in new capacity this year, as state officials approve two new leases that could add another 550 megawatts. (Renewable Energy World, Albuquerque Business Journal) 

FOSSIL FUELS: Rhode Island regulators decide that a liquefied natural gas facility that was supposed to only operate temporarily can stay online for another five years, despite the community’s noise, light and climate pollution concerns. (Newport Daily News)

COMMENTARY: A sustainability advocate says Los Angeles will need an “epic transportation reboot” to achieve a zero-emission Olympic Games in 2028. (Los Angeles Times)

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