From the suburbs to the barrier islands, the state’s local cooperatives are using aggregated battery systems to weather outages and protect consumers’ wallets.

In July 2022, a fierce summer storm rocked Wake Electric, a North Carolina cooperative serving nearly 60,000 households and other customers from the dense suburbs of Raleigh, the state capital, to rural areas along the Virginia border and in the coastal plain. Wind downed lines and knocked out power for thousands for over seven hours.

“It was one of these very difficult outages where we had a line laying across a road,” said Don Bowman, the co-op’s senior vice president and assistant general manager. ​“We had to coordinate a lot of activities, and it took us a while to get this power back on.”

But Eagle Chase, a small housing community equipped with a propane-fueled generator and a 1-megawatt Tesla battery pack, was almost completely unscathed. The devices form a microgrid that can function without the co-op’s larger distribution system of poles and wires.

“The success story,” Bowman said, ​“is the Eagle Chase development saw an outage of less than about 58 milliseconds.”

The Eagle Chase battery is among three storage systems in Wake Electric’s territory. The second, in Wake Forest, is a 1-megawatt-hour battery paired with a 500-kilowatt solar farm; its purpose is to dispatch solar electrons when the sun doesn’t shine. The third, a 5-megawatt battery located at the co-op’s main substation, stores power that can be discharged when supplies are constrained and electricity prices are high.

The systems illustrate three key advantages of battery storage, Bowman said: providing resiliency, increasing the reliability of renewable energy, and responding to periods of high demand.

“We have three systems, and I think that we check all three of those boxes differently with each of the projects,” he said.

Wake Electric isn’t alone. As of April 2025, rural co-ops across North Carolina had 43 battery projects operating or in development, according to the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. Co-ops here were spearheading more grid batteries than those in any other state; Alaska was a distant second with 13 projects.

The co-ops say they aren’t trying to win any national contests. They’re just trying to do right by the members they serve.

“Community support is one of the pillars we drive toward,” said Erik Hall, a director at the North Carolina Electric Membership Corp., a statewide entity that owns the battery assets and provides generation and transmission for 25 rural cooperatives. ​“What can we do to support the membership?”

The battery investments are partly a response to challenges now sweeping the country: Skyrocketing demand from data centers and other factors are constraining supplies and triggering expensive grid upgrades, driving up the costs of electricity.

Storing electrons for use when demand is at its peak and prices are high is a huge money saver for these customer-owned nonprofits — especially as the costs of batteries are falling and federal tax credits for the resources are still available.

“What these battery systems have been able to do is really save folks money while increasing resilience, and helping with reliability sort of across the footprint,” said Rob Greskowiak, chief commercial officer for Lightshift Energy, a storage developer that has worked with several co-ops outside North Carolina, including in neighboring Virginia. ​“It’s really an economic story.”

Money isn’t the only motivator. Co-ops often serve far-flung corners of the state, where an investor-owned utility like Duke Energy would earn a meager profit. Many of these areas — from rugged mountains to fragile barrier islands — are also prone to outages from extreme weather.

That’s why almost a decade ago, Tideland Electric Member Corp. set up the state’s first cooperative-run microgrid on Ocracoke Island — complete with 62 solar panels, a battery pack, and a diesel generator. The system kept the power on for island residents in the summer of 2017, after a construction crew accidentally severed a transmission line to the mainland.

“The solar worked,” Heidi Smith, a Tideland co-op manager, said back then. ​“The Tesla batteries were able to add power to the system.”

North Carolina’s co-ops also have set a target of zeroing out their carbon emissions by midcentury, though, unlike Duke, they’re not required to by law.

“It’s in our mission statement to constantly be moving toward cleaner energy solutions,” Bowman of Wake Electric co-op explained.

The benefits and costs of the individual battery systems can be spread out among the co-ops and their millions of customers, since all these storage devices are managed by the North Carolina Electric Membership Corp.

“Having all of these assets is wonderful,” the corporation’s Hall said. ​“But if you can’t aggregate them and utilize them when they’re needed, then you’re not really bringing to bear the value of them.”

That means calling on the storage assets when high demand sends electricity prices soaring or dispatching them during extreme weather events to enhance reliability.

“I sound like I’m tooting our horn, and I am,” Hall said. ​“We’ve built one of the most innovative and capable [distributed energy resource management] systems in the country.”

“I don’t call it a virtual power plant, because it sounds very financial, economic,” he added. ​“Our systems are grounded in reliability.”

Still, not every move made by the state’s co-ops has been in lockstep with the clean energy transition. North Carolina Electric Membership Corp. is pursuing a large new gas-generation plant in Person County in conjunction with Duke and already owns two single-cycle, peaking gas plants outright. It’s also made a long-shot bid to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that, if successful, could upend how transmission upgrades are paid for and stall new solar from coming onto the grid.

The split screen just reinforces that batteries are not, for many adopters, first and foremost about curbing carbon emissions.

“North Carolina can be viewed as a leader in this space, but I think it’s important to reiterate that it’s not because of sustainability goals or clean energy goals,” Greskowiak said. ​“The economic case for battery storage is only going to grow. The rest of the country is catching up.”

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The Trump admin’s new rules block Americans from accessing rebates for electric heat pumps if they previously had oil, natural gas, or propane systems.

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers climate, energy, and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter.

Federal energy efficiency rebate programs will no longer cover a switch from fossil fuels to electricity for heating, according to long-awaited guidance from the Department of Energy.

The department published an update on how it will implement consumer programs with $8.8 billion in funding. The new provisions include eliminating use of diversity, equity, and inclusion considerations, among other changes.

This follows legal challenges after President Donald Trump issued an executive order last year, upon returning to office, canceling the release of funds from President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, including rebates for home energy efficiency. A coalition of states successfully sued to restore the funding, obtaining an injunction in March 2025.

States have been waiting for the Department of Energy to reopen funding, a process that begins with this latest publication.

Clean energy and environmental advocates said the guidance was overdue and severely flawed.

Tony Sirna, deputy policy director for Evergreen Action, said it’s ​“flatly illegal” to eliminate funding for electrification through an agency’s guidance rather than passing a new law. ​“This is a deliberate effort to deny relief to millions of families at the exact moment they need it the most,” he said in a statement.

The guidance, dated May 29 and announced in a news release on June 1, covers the $4.3 billion Home Owner Managing Energy Savings, or HOMES, program and the $4.5 billion High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate, or HEEHR, program, with additional guidance for Indian tribes participating in HEEHR.

The HOMES program provides up to $8,000 for households to make energy-efficient upgrades, including insulation, air sealing, heating and cooling equipment, water heaters, duct sealing, appliances, and lighting, according to the Department of Energy. The upgrades must reduce energy use by at least 20 percent to be eligible.

The HEEHR program provides up to $14,000 in rebates per household, which retailers and contractors can offer at the point of sale, and can be used for qualifying efficient electric equipment and appliances.

Congress and the Biden administration designed the programs to ensure that low-income and other disadvantaged households received a significant share of the benefits. The new guidance is changing this focus, citing the Trump administration’s opposition to considering diversity, equity, and inclusion in federal spending and the elimination of Biden’s Justice40 environmental justice initiative.

The guidance also eliminates the programs’ support for shifting from oil, gas, or other fossil fuels to electricity for home heating. Now, households can only get funding for heat pumps for new construction or if they already have electric heat, as opposed to the previous rules that encouraged people to switch away from fossil fuels.

Another change is that the Department of Energy now requires households to upgrade their insulation and air sealing before using rebates for new appliances.

Reaction was mostly negative from groups that push for improvements in energy efficiency.

“It’s a very standard playbook to incentivize fossil fuel companies and provide a lifeline to them,” said Srinidhi Sampath Kumar, director of the Sierra Club’s clean heat campaign, about the limits on fuel switching. ​“It’s absolutely been done in bad faith.”

Mark Kresowik, senior policy director for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, said in a statement that the programs ​“will help families make energy-saving improvements that lower their utility bills,” but he lamented the new limits on the programs.

The guidance is ​“a fundamental departure” from the intent of the programs, said Sam Friesen, managing director for buildings at Fresh Energy, a Minnesota-based environmental advocacy group. He added that the changes will muddy the waters for consumers who were making plans under the old rules and now need to follow the new ones.

Robin Yochum, buildings program director for the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, a regional nonprofit based in Colorado, said she is pleased to see this step to implement the programs but is concerned about limits on fuel shifting.

“While there are certainly many electrically heated homes that deserve efficiency upgrades, helping households transition from propane, fuel oil, and natural gas to highly efficient electric technologies was one of the most transformative aspects of the original program design,” she said in an email.

Asked for a response, a Department of Energy spokesperson had this comment: ​“The Department of Energy has released common-sense revisions to program guidance to align requirements more closely with statutory requirements, advance affordability, ensure good stewardship of taxpayer dollars, and empower grantees to tailor their programs to local contexts and residents’ needs.”

State programs administer the money but the federal government must approve the state plans before the funds are released. Most states plus the District of Columbia have had at least some of their plans approved, as shown in a May 18 update from Atlas Public Policy.

Some already paid rebates based on the initial rules under the Biden administration. Those states now have three months to modify their programs to comply with the new guidance going forward.

South Dakota has declined to participate, and Idaho’s legislature has taken action to stop participating.

Consumers can contact their state energy offices to get more information about program availability.

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The package of geothermal permitting reforms comes as Republicans and Democrats alike look to boost clean, 24/7 power supplies. Now it heads to the Senate.

The U.S. House just approved a bipartisan package of bills to accelerate geothermal energy as the nation clamors for more around-the-clock clean electricity.

The Geothermal Energy Advancement Act, or H.R. 5631, passed with broad support on Tuesday. The legislation — led by U.S. Reps. Jeff Hurd (R-Colo.) and Susie Lee (D-Nev.) — includes the text of six bills that tackle some of the key permitting and regulatory challenges that companies face when building and scaling geothermal systems.

The measures ​“seem like low-hanging fruit, but they can actually make a tangible difference as we try and develop projects,” Ben Brenner, who leads federal policy and outreach for the geothermal startup Zanskar, told Canary Media. ​“It’s a huge milestone for these bills to pass the House.”

Also on Tuesday, the House separately passed another geothermal bill — sponsored by Rep. Russ Fulcher (R-Idaho) — that aims to increase the frequency and consistency of geothermal lease sales on federal land.

America has been converting earth’s heat into electricity for nearly 70 years, beginning with The Geysers power plant in Northern California. Yet the carbon-free energy source still accounts for only 0.4% of the nation’s annual electricity generation, largely owing to geographical constraints.

A new generation of technologies has made it possible to extract heat from places without simmering hot springs and natural reservoirs. The startup Fervo Energy, which just went public, uses drilling techniques from the oil and gas industry to produce clean power from hot dry rocks. Zanskar combines artificial intelligence with boots-on-the-ground surveying to identify conventional but hidden heat resources in the U.S. West.

But so far, the federal government hasn’t adapted to meet the rising demand from developers for permits, land leases, and legal certainty, experts say. Over 90% of identified U.S. geothermal resources are beneath public lands, making the Department of the Interior a crucial player in the emerging industry’s growth.

“As technologies evolve, so must the regulatory landscape,” Terra Rogers, senior director of the Clean Air Task Force’s superhot rock geothermal program, said in a statement. She applauded Congress for taking practical steps toward ​“unlocking next-generation geothermal.”

Now, the geothermal bills head to the Senate, though it’s unclear when or how the chamber will act, E&E reported. However, Brenner said he sees ​“a real pathway toward Senate passage, whether as standalone legislation or as part of a broader permitting package.”

Originally, Hurd introduced H.R. 5631 to improve Interior’s own expertise on geothermal issues, including by creating the role of ​“ombudsman” — a point person within the Bureau of Land Management who can clear up confusion and resolve disagreements among field offices about geothermal permitting decisions.

The amended bill that passed this week also folds in five other measures:

• H.R. 1077, the Streamlining Thermal Energy through Advanced Mechanisms (STEAM) Act, grants geothermal developers the same streamlined environmental permitting pathway, known as ​“categorical exclusion,” that oil and gas companies have to expedite exploration and development on certain public lands.
• H.R. 301, the Geothermal Energy Opportunity (GEO) Act, requires Interior to process all applications for drilling permits and licenses under an existing geothermal lease within 60 days of completing required reviews.
• H.R. 5638, the Geothermal Royalty Reform Act, clarifies that geothermal plants on the same lease pay royalties based on each individual facility’s time in service.
• H.R. 5617, the Geothermal Gold Book Development Act, provides guidance to federal staffers by requiring the Bureau of Land Management to publish best practices for geothermal leasing and permitting.
• H.R. 398, the Geothermal Cost-Recovery Authority Act, gives Interior the authority to recoup application and inspection fees from energy companies to expedite geothermal projects, similar to what the agency already does for wind, solar, and oil and gas.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who sponsored H.R. 398, said that speeding up geothermal deployment could help alleviate the nation’s skyrocketing electric bills. ​“At a time of extreme political polarization, this package shows that Congress can still come together on commonsense solutions to better the lives of the American people,” she said in a press release.

The measures will also likely benefit the developers of power-hungry data centers, such as Google and Meta, which are investing in geothermal projects to support their growing operations in Nevada and New Mexico, respectively. Both firms are members of the Corporate Energy Buyers Association, a trade group that advocates for a carbon-free energy system.

“There are few energy technologies that draw this level of bipartisan support, but geothermal energy is a reliable domestic resource with enormous potential to fuel our nation’s electricity needs,” Rich Powell, CEO of the association, said in a statement.

Geothermal’s ability to churn out power 24/7 appeals to both Republicans and Democrats grappling with energy-supply crunches in their states, though wind and solar paired with batteries can also deliver firm power in certain ideal locations. Late last month, a bipartisan group of governors from Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah launched a coalition to ease financial and logistical hurdles that stand in the way of building potentially hundreds of gigawatts of geothermal capacity in the Mountain West.

Geothermal’s strong overlap with the oil and gas industry — in terms of tools, workforce, and investors — is another key reason why the Trump administration has shown support for the renewable energy source, even as it works to block wind and solar development.

Beyond the House bills, Brenner noted that other, bolder policy measures are needed to dramatically increase the scale and pace of next-generation geothermal deployment in the U.S. That could include increasing federal funding for research and exploration — efforts that are largely backed by equity and venture capital today — as well as for demonstration projects that help de-risk geothermal development in new areas.

“This is an incredibly positive step, but it is not the full picture,” he said of the legislation. ​“There’s a lot more work that has to happen.”

An update was made on June 3, 2026, to include Rep. Russ Fulcher’s legislation.

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